Wild plants are protected under the provisions of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981.  To summarise, it is an offence for anyone to "intentionally pick, uproot destroy any wild plant on Schedule 8"  - Section 13(1)(a).   It is also an offence under Section 13(1)(b) for "any unauthorised person to intentionally uproot any wild plant" - protected or otherwise.  It is also an offence to "sell, offer or expose for sale or possess or transport for the purpose of sale any live or dead wild plant (or any part of or anything derived from such a plant) on Schedule 8".

Schedule  8 lists all the wild plants which are protected from intentional picking, uprooting and destruction.  These are listed below.

A   Adders Tongue (Least), Alison (Small), Anomodon (Long-leaved)

B   Beech Lichen (New Forest), Blackwort, Bluebell, Bolete (Royal), Broomrape - Bedstraw, Ox-tongue, Thistle

C   Cabbage (Lundy), Calamint (Wood), Caloplaca (Snow), Catapyrenium (Tree), Catchfly (Alpine), Catillaria (Laurer's), Centaury (Slender), Cinquefoil (Rock), Cladonia - Upright Mountain, Convoluted; Clary (Meadow), Club-rush (Triangular), Colt's Foot (Purple), Cotoneaster (Wild), Cottongrass (Slender), Cow Wheat (Field), Crimmia (Blunt-leaved), Crocus (Sand), Crystalwort (Lizard), Cudweed - Broad-leaved, Jersey, Red-tipped; Cut Grass

D  Diapensia, Dock (Shore), Dwarf Spike Rush

E   Earwort (Marsh), Eryngo (Field),

F   Feathermoss (Polar), Fern - Dickie's Bladder, Killarney; Flapwort (Norfolk), Fleabane - Alpine, Small;  Fleawort (South Stack), Frostwort (Pointed)

G   Galingale (Brown), Gentian - Alpine, Dune, Early, Fringed; Germander - Cut-leaved, Water; Gladiolus (Wild), Goosefoot (Stinking), Grass-poly, Goblin Lights, Gyalecta (Elm)

H   Hare's Ear - Sickle-leaved, Small; Hawksbeard (Stinking), Hawkweed - Shetland, Weak-leaved; Heath (Blue), Hedgehog Fungus, Helleborine - Red, Young's; Horsetail (Branched), Hound's Tongue (Green)

K   Knawel (Perennial), Knotgrass (Sea)

L   Lady's Slipper (Sea), Lady's Slipper, Lecanactis (Churchyard), Leanora (Tarn), Lecidea (Copper), Leek (Round-headed), Lettuce (Least), Lichens - Artic Kidney, Ciliate Strap, Corallloid Rosette, Ear-lobed Dog, Forked Hair, Golden Hair, Orange Fruited, Elm, River Jelly, Scaly Breck, Starry Breck; Lily (Snowdon), Liverwort (Lindenberg's), Liverwort (Leafy)

M   Marshmallow (Rough), Marshwort (Creeping), Milk Parsley (Cambridge), Mosses - Alpine Copper, Baltic Bog, Blue Dew, Blunt-leaved Bristle, Bright Green Cave, Cordate Beard, Cornish Path, Derbyshire Feather, Dune Thread, Glaucous Beard, Green Shield, Hair Silk, Knothole, Large Yellow Feather, Millimetre, Multifruited River, Nowell's Limestone, Rigid Apple, Round-leaved Feather, Scleicher's Thread, Triangular Pygmy, Vaucer's Feather; Mudwort (Welsh)

N   Naiad - Holly-leaved, Slender

O   Orache (Stalked), Orchid - Early Spider, Fen, Ghost, Lapland Marsh, Late Spider, Lizard, Military, Monkey

P   Panneria (Caledonia), Parmelia (New Forest), Parmentaria (Oil Stain), Pear (Plymouth), Pennycress (Perfoliate), Pennyroyal, Pertusaria (Alpine Moss), Physica (Southern Grey), Pigmyweed, Pink - Cheddar, Childing, Deptford, Ground; Plantain (Floating Water), Polypore (Oak), Pseudo-cyphellaria (Ragged), Psora (Rusty Alpine), Puffball (Sandy Stilt)

R   Ragwort (Fen), Ramping Fumitory (Martin's), Rampion (Spiked), Restharrow (Small), Rock Cress - Alpine, Bristol; Rustwort (Western)

S    Sandwort - Norwegian, Teesdale; Saxifrage - Drooping, Marsh, Tufted; Solenopsora (Serpentine), Soloman's Seal (Whorled), Sow Thistle (Alpine), Spearwort (Adder's Tonge), Speedwell - Fingered, Spiked; Star of Bethlehem (Early), Starfruit, Stonewort - Foxtail, Bearded; Strapwort, Sulphur Tresses (Alpine)

T   Threadmoss (Long-leaved), Turpswort

V   Violet (Fen), Viper's Grass

W   Water Plantain (Ribbon-leaved), Wood Sedge (Starved), Woodsia - Alpine, Oblong; Wormwood (Field), Woundwort - Downy, Limestone

Y   Yellow Rattle (Greater)