AN extinct plant has been returned to the wild 30 years after it was last seen. The interrupted brome is a grass which was only ever found in southern England and nowhere else in the world.

It was last seen in the wild in 1972 and was thought to be a casualty of changing farming practices.

But now English Nature has linked up with botanists to establish the plant back into the countryside and it can be seen by visitors to the Chilterns.

Graham Steven, English Nature's site manager, said: "It's great to be able to return a plant to the countryside that was so nearly lost.

"We hope that we can establish a self-sustaining population here and learn more about the plant's requirements.

"And with growing awareness of the increasing rarity of Britain's arable flowers we hope that this will encourage farmers to leave the odd field margin unsprayed where plants like this can flourish."

Interrupted brome used to be quite common in fields of wheat and clover, growing alongside other arable wild plants like poppies.

It was only saved from becoming completely lost by being grown in pots on a windowsill by a Cambridge botanist, the late Philip Smith.

Thousands of plants are now growing in a field at Aston Rowant and they plan to grow it in other locations in the south of England, in the hope that it will once again become a familiar farmland plant.