This appeal represents Plantlife’s work to create a world rich in plants and fungi. Your gift will help support work from species recovery and habitat restoration to campaigning for policy change, and working in partnership with people. Your gift will be used in the most effective way possible to make a difference to nature. We can only continue our conservation work through the generosity of supporters like you.

Why Do Meadows Need Our Help?

Meadows have shaped our history and culture for centuries, yet most have been lost – and the precious few that remain are still at risk.

There is hope: people are starting to bring meadows back to life and every pocket of colour gives new hope for nature and climate. But progress is fragile and far too slow. With your support we can protect what’s left and restore so much more. Will you donate today to help protect these national treasures?

For generations meadows and people have worked together to survive – making food, supporting livelihoods and helping to combat climate change. Their history is our history.

But as our connection with nature has dwindled, meadows have suffered too, and now they’re at risk of disappearing.

Meadows have been bulldozed, over-fertilised and destroyed. Development, intensive farming and misguided tree planting have all left their mark on these landscapes.

We’ve lost an estimated 97% of wildflower meadows since the 1930s. Yet there is hope, every restored meadow shows what is possible but we need to do so much more.

We can’t stand by and watch them vanish. A donation of £5 could help restore the biodiversity of 45m2 of meadow[*].

Fascinating Facts About Meadows

What Makes a Meadow a National Treasure?

• A typical meadow can be home to 570 flower heads per square metre on a single day in early summer. That’s nine million flowers in an average three-acre meadow. [1]
• At peak nectar flow at the beginning of August, the flowers in a three-acre meadow can produce nearly 6kg of nectar sugar per day, enough to feed over half a million bees. [1]
• The plants in a typical meadow can support nearly 1,400 species of invertebrates, that’s a multitude of bugs, beetles, flies, spiders, grasshoppers, crickets, butterflies and moths. [1]
• Flower-rich grasslands and meadows can store 500% more carbon than fields of pure grass. [1]
• Roots of meadow plants like Common Knapweed, Great Burnet and Common Bird’s-foot-trefoil can reach down two metres into the ground, helping them survive drought, stabilise the soil, store carbon and bring up valuable minerals for livestock to eat. [1]
• Looking at a flower like Oxeye Daisy for just six seconds has been shown to lower your blood pressure. [2]

Peoples History with Meadows

We each have our own story about meadows. Some of us remember seeing them in our childhood; for many, they survive only in books, paintings, or the street names that whisper of a landscape we’ve already lost.

With your support, we can help bring them back.

‘‘I grew up in Ditchling in East Sussex and I remember seeing wildflowers when I was out on my bike or building dens with my friends. We liked using their nicknames: “eggs and bacon” for Common Bird’s-foot-trefoil and “bread and cheese” for Hawthorn shoots! I had a close, hands-on relationship with nature from a young age.” Martha Kearney in Plantlife Spring 2026 members magazine.

“Wildflower meadows naturally evoke a sense of play. I remember taking my children to a meadow when they were little and playing hide and seek. They loved lying down among the tall grass — their faces beaming up at me.” Cass Crocker, Senior Arts and Culture Officer, Plantlife.

Meadow Caretakers

Meadows rely on people to manage and care for them. In this International Year of Rangelands and Pastoralists we are shining a light on some of the farmers, communities and land managers that are playing a crucial role in the health and vitality of these national treasures.