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This year on National Meadows Day, we are campaigning for the protection of irreplaceable meadows – and we need your help!
Our wildflower meadows are a powerful ally in the fight against climate change – but they are in trouble!
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Location: Sheldon, Peak District, Derbyshire OS: SK 165 698 What Three Word location:///announced.hangs.paradise
Habitat: Limestone Grassland
Deep Dale is one of those special places where, if you visit the right part at the right time of year, you will see swathes of colour spreading over the hillsides.
Sitting within the Peak District National Park, this grassland reserve has a rich cultural history including lead mining and the remains of a Romano-British settlement on a steep-sided hill called Fin Cop.
If you’re heading for a visit, there are many beautiful plants to keep an eye out for. Why not download our plant guide and circular walk map here.
The reserve is an area of grassland between 150-325m above sea level.
It lies within the Peak District National Park where the underlying rock is mainly carboniferous limestone. Most of the grassland is on thin soils over this rock, and so is very calcium-rich.
At the top of the slopes the soil becomes more acidic, while at the foot the soil is deeper and more fertile. Each zone has its own flora.
From Bakewell, take the A6 towards Buxton. Approximately 3.5 miles from Bakewell you reach the White Lodge pay and display car park on the left hand side of the road.
To get to the reserve from the car park, follow the footpath leading southwards. Approximately 200 meters from the car park you reach a stile, which is one of the entrances to the reserve.
Early Purple Orchids and Cowslips at Deep Dale
Meadow Saxifrage at Deep Dale
Mountain Pansies at Deep Dale
Lilly of the Valley
Looking down the hill at the Early Purple Orchids
Orange Tip butterfly on a Cuckoo Flower
A Limestone Fern
Close up of a dainty Bitter Vetch flower
Wood Anemone
Mossy Saxifrage
A downloadable pdf with map and guide of a circular 4 mile walk in Peak District National park , starting from White Lodge Carpark
24 Plantlife
Location: Week St. Mary, Cornwall OS: SX 234963 What Three Word location:///wobbles.cats.digs
Habitat: Culm grassland
Greena Moor is an excellent example of culm grassland where ‘culm’ refers to the rocks underneath the clay soil.
Always sparse, culm grassland suffered a catastrophic decline through agricultural ‘improvements’. The reserve is a fragment of what was once an extensive moorland and mire system, including large areas of culm grassland. It is fringed by wet woodland of alder and willows.
The nationally scarce Wavy St-John’s-wort Hypericum undulatum and Three-lobed Water Crowfoot Ranunculus tripartitus can be found here. Devil’s-bit Scabious Succisa pratensis is an important food plant for the Marsh Fritillary butterfly which are active on the reserve.
Purchase of the reserve was made possible by Unilever. Managed in partnership with Cornwall Wildlife Trust.
Culm measures are a kind of rock from the Carboniferous era that contains thin bands of impure anthracite or culm, found only in Cornwall, Devon, the New Forest and South Wales
Always sparse, culm grassland suffered a catastrophic decline through agricultural “improvements”. The reserve is a fragment of what was once an extensive moorland and mire system, including large areas of culm grassland. It is fringed by wet woodland of alder and willows.
Follow the B3254 south towards Launceston and turn right to Week St Mary.
At the southern end of the village take the minor road signposted to Launceston, and turn right just beyond the Green Inn. The reserve is about a mile further on the left.
Cattle at the Reserve
Pale Dog Violet
A Common Lizard spotted in the grasses
Brush cutting at Greena Moor
Orange tip butterfly on a Cuckoo Flower
Five-spot Burnet Moth on Common Bird’s-foot Trefoil at Greena Moor
A Common Shrew in the undergrowth
Slender St John’s Wort
Location: Cuxton, Medway, KentOS: TQ 716673What Three Words location: ///hood.pull.drives
Habitat: Chalk grassland, arable fields and ancient woodland
Ranscombe Farm Reserve is Plantlife’s flagship reserve, an Important Plant Area for its arable flowers and part of a new National Nature Reserve.
We’re joining a wide partnership of organisations to launch the North Kent Woods and Downs National Nature Reserve.
This exciting venture unites our beautiful site with ancient woodlands, vineyards and other chalk grasslands in earning national status for being one of the very best nature conservation sites in England.
Ben Sweeney, Ranscombe Farm Reserve Manager said: “It is truly exciting that Ranscombe Farm, Plantlife’s flagship nature reserve, is now part of such a concerted effort to bring together conservation, community and sustainable land use at the landscape scale. Ranscombe Farm, a wonderful patchwork of arable fields, ancient woodland and chalk grasslands, is a globally significant place for wild plants and other wildlife. Not only is Ranscombe the last wild UK site for Corncockle, it also harbours the largest population of the endangered Broad-leaved Cudweed and a wide variety of rare wild orchids.”
Ranscombe is made up of chalk grassland, arable fields and woodland. The chalk grassland is full of Common Rock-rose Helianthemum nummularium, Clustered Bellflower Campanula glomerata and Wild Liquorice alongside Skylarks and Common Blue and Marbled White butterflies.
Our reserve is also believed to be the last remaining natural site in the UK for Corncockle and home to the largest UK populations of Broad-leaved Cudweed Filago pyramidata. The first record in Britain of Meadow Clary Salvia pratensis and Marsh Mallow Althaea officinalis were here too. It really is an arable flower haven!
Sessile Oak Quercus petraea and Hornbeam Carpinus betulus grow in the Sweet Chestnut Castanea sativa coppice. This woodland has existed here since at least AD 1600 and is an important wildlife corridor in North Kent.
Ranscombe Farm is Plantlife’s largest nature reserve in England, occupying a total area of 560 acres on the slopes of the North Downs in Kent. Recently declared as a country park, the reserve provides opportunities for quiet walks amongst attractive countryside with a fascinating flora.
The Ranscombe Farm landscape includes arable habitats, extensive ancient woodland and fragments of chalk grassland. A large part of the site is within the Cobham Woods Site of Special Scientific Interest, and the whole farm is within the Kent Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.
Ranscombe Farm is managed in partnership with Medway Council as a nature reserve, working farm and country park. You are welcome to visit at any time, but please keep to the marked footpaths.
The nearest rail stations are at Cuxton, Strood and Rochester (visit National Rail for more information). There are also several local bus services, details of which can be found at Kent public transport or by calling Traveline on 0870 608 2608.
If you are travelling by car, the main entrance and car park are accessible directly from the A228 shortly before the roundabout (when approaching the M2 from Cuxton).
Please be aware that we are doing some conservation work around the reserve this winter. Large machinery may be operating in this woods. Please pay attention to instructions and signage.
We are excited to have joined a wide partnership of organisations in launching the North Kent Woods and Downs National Nature Reserve.
Ranscombe Farm will sit in the new National Nature Reserve (NNR) which unites a mosaic of ancient woodlands, vineyards and chalk grasslands in a historic environment where people have lived and farmed for millennia.
The North Kent Woods and Downs National Nature Reserve has earned national status because it is one of the very best nature conservation sites in England.
This groundbreaking NNR, full of internationally important wildlife, is the first of its kind to be made up of such a wide partnership of private landowners and public land managers, it is also the first to be partnership led.
We are also undertaking exciting work at the reserve:
All these important work are made possible thanks to the support our members gave to this year’s nature reserves appeal and an additional grant of over £60,000 from the Veolia Environmental trust.
Ranscombe Farm Nature Reserve
Corncockle at Ranscombe Farm Nature Reserve
Poppies at Ranscombe Farm Nature Reserve
Ranscombe in the snow
Snow covered trees in mid-winter
Poppies at Ranscombe Farm, Ben Sweeney, Plantlife
Close up of a Fly Orchid
The reserves team on a visit to Ranscombe Farm
Delve further into the secrets of Ranscombe Farm Reserve with our family expedition walk map
This education pack is designed to help teachers use Ranscombe Farm Reserve for learning outside the classroom.
Location: near Settle, Yorkshire Dales National Park, North Yorkshire OS: SD 836662 What Three Words location: ///outwards.swims.bigger
Habitat: Limestone pavement and limestone pasture
A unique landscape with spectacular views northwards to the Yorkshire “Three Peaks” of Ingleborough, Whernside and Pen-y-Ghent.
The deep fissures in the limestone pavement provide a moist, shady hideaway for a range of woodland plants including ramsons, Dog’s Mercury Mercurialis perennis and Green Spleenwort Asplenium viride. In the pasture you will find Mountain Pansy, Cowslips and Early-purple Orchids.
Plantlife bought Winskill Stones with the help of a public appeal to stop the extraction of rock from its limestone pavement and to allow its varied flora to thrive. We would also like to take the opportunity to thank the Ian Addison Charitable Foundation for their long term support of this reserve.
Other species prefer the low cliffs or humpbacks of limestone around the reserve, and the boldest displays of colour can be found on the ledges out of reach of grazing animals. You may see Kidney Vetch, Horseshoe Vetch, Common Rock-rose and 2 saxifrages, with Meadow Saxifrage usually found in grassland whilst Mossy Saxifrage prefers more exposed conditions.
Where the soil is thinner, or on crumbling limestone, you can find cushions of Spring Sandwort, whose flowers have five white petals that are just a little longer than the green sepals between them. Here too are mats of Limestone Bedstraw, with tiny white flowers and narrow leaves in whorls of six to eight up its stems. Herbs such as this and Wild Thyme are beginning to colonise even the desolate patches of rubble waste and pavement remains in two of the reserve’s fields. Rarities that are harder to spot include Green Spleenwort, Common Twayblade and Wall Lettuce.
Please take care on your visit. Be aware of the terrain and of any roads that pass through the reserve. Note that livestock periodically graze many of our reserves as part of their management.
Location: near Settle, Yorkshire Dales National Park, North Yorkshire
Grid Reference: SD 836 662
Wild Thyme at Winskill Stones Nature Reserve
Curlew at Winskill Stones Nature Reserve
Kidney Vetch at Winskill Stones Nature Reserve
View out across to Pen y Ghent
Green Spleenwort
Early Purple Orchid
Winskill Stones is a 74-acre reserve of limestone pavement and limestone pasture. Discover more about it with this resource.
Come with us to discover this wild space together and see what we can find.
Location: Checkley, HerefordshireOS: SO 592374What Three Words location: ///paintings.fashion.feels
Habitat: Meadows, pasture and woodland
Joan’s Hill Farm, set in the Wye Valley National Landscapes, is a stunning piece of Herefordshire meadowland alongside a small area of woodland. The reserve is one of several of Plantlife’s reserves to hold that generally scarce Pepper-saxifrage as well as the uncommon Dyer’s Greenweed and Greater Butterfly-orchid Platanthera chlorantha.
Some of the meadow species are less common. Also found here is Dyer’s Greenweed. It looks a little like a low-growing broom, although no more than 70cm tall, but it has no spines and its leaves are unlobed. It is a species of old meadows and grassy pastures, and was once used to produce yellow and green dyes.
The eastern block of pasture land, covering around six acres, hosts species like betony, and in the small area of woodland at the west of the reserve you’ll find many typical woodland plants.
A stunning piece of Herefordshire meadowland, set in the Wye Valley Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.
Until relatively recently it was still a working farm (the farmhouse is still privately owned) and our land here is divided into 14 different fields, with one parcel of woodland. Three hundred years ago, the farm had exactly the same boundaries as today, and the pattern of fields has hardly changed since the tithe map of 1843.
The reserve is in two parcels, separated by about 300m, but the largest part is a 40-acre block of meadow. To conserve the flowers and wildlife, we cut the meadows for hay in late summer, after the meadow plants have flowered and set seed. Any regrowth is then grazed by cattle during the autumn, but for the rest of year grazing animals are kept off the meadows to encourage the greatest diversity of plants.
Park at Haugh Wood car park and picnic site, just off the road from Mordiford to Woolhope (grid reference: SO 592 365).
Purchase of the reserve was made possible by Unilever (Timotei) and the Heritage Lottery Fund.
Sloping wildflower meadow at Joan’s Hill reserve
A meadow of daisies and orchids at Joan’s Hill Farm
Green-winged Orchid at Joans Hill Farm reserve
Common Carder Bee on Devil’s-bit Scabious
Spindle berries in the hedge
Tree surgeons pruning and removing (a proportion of the) mistletoe, to prolong the lives of our old apple trees at Joan’s Hill Farm orchard.
Veteran apple tree in blossom at The Old Orchard
Rosy Bonnet at Joan’s Hill Farm woodland
A sea of yellow wildflowers at Joan’s Hill Farm
A six-spot burnet moth caterpillar, munching on common bird’s-foot trefoil in the meadows at Joan’s Hill Farm
Location: near Lampeter, Carmarthenshire, Wales OS: SN 604441 What Three Words location: ///boomers.abundance.premature
Habitat: Species-rich neutral pasture
On a ridge above Lampeter, Cae Blaen-dyffryn is a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) because of the importance of its species-rich neutral grassland, and Lesser Butterfly Orchid Platanthera bifolia population. Visitors can marvel at Butterfly-orchids and waxcap fungi, and spot the elusive Moonwort Fern Botrychium lunaria.
The upper slopes are dry grassland, with typical species like Red Clover, Common Knapweed, Common Bird’s-foot Trefoil, and Cat’s-ear. Drainage is poorer lower down, where a mire community characterised by big tussocks of Purple Moor-grass also includes Ragged-robin, Marsh Thistle and Common Valerian.
This is one of the few Plantlife reserves where fungi are recorded as a special feature, with 5 species of waxcap, best seen on the reserve from September to November. Pink waxcap is uncommon and only grows on grasslands not affected by modern agriculture.
Cae Blaen-dyffryn is a single large field – Cae means field in Welsh – sloping upwards, gently at first and then more steeply before levelling off at 340m above sea level.
In total, more than 160 flowering plant species have been recorded on the reserve, which is managed by light cattle-grazing to stop taller, fast-growing species overwhelming the more delicate grassland specialities.
There are no public rights of way into the nature reserve and access is via stock gate from the A482 itself.
Park safely in nearby lanes and access the site from the main road; please take care on the roadside.
No dogs please.
Grid Ref: SN605443, postcode SA48 8EZ
Purchase of the reserve was made possible by Unilever (Timotei).
Location: Capel Uchaf, near Clynnog Fawr, Gwynedd, Wales OS: SH 431488 What Three Word location: ///lotteries.dusted.birthdays
Habitat: Species-rich neutral haymeadow and rhos pasture
Caeau Tan y Bwlch lies on the hillside above Clynnog Fawr, at the eastern end of the Llŷn peninsula, Wales. Its name means “the fields below the mountain pass”.
With magnificent views of Anglesey and Eryri/Snowdonia, this botanically important site is full of meadow grasses, sedges, bog mosses and flowers like rare eyebrights. Caeau Tan y Bwlch’s grassland has been traditionally managed without fertiliser or reseeding, leading to this floral feast.
The reserve’s small fields are bordered by clawdd walls – a stone-faced earth bank, where the stone is set on edge almost like the wall of some Medieval castle.
Its history helps explain why the reserve is so important botanically. Its Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) citation commends it as one of the few remaining examples of traditionally managed, enclosed pastures on the Lleyn,
The nature reserve is made up of a number of small, historic field enclosures. The upper fields are species rich hay meadows, and contain a growing population of Greater Butterfly Orchids.
The lower fields are damper, and filled with taller plants like Purple Moor Grass Molinia caerulea and rushes. you will also find sedges, Sneezewort Achillea ptarmica, Marsh Violet Viola palustris and much more.
Turn off the A499 from Caernarfon to Pwllheli into the village of Clynnog Fawr. Take the 2nd left and then turn immediately right by the school, signposted to Capel Uchaf.
Continue for about ¾ mile and take the first right uphill – access is concealed and unsigned. Continue up this winding, single-track road for about 1 mile. After a turn to the left, the reserve’s car park is a further 150 metres on your left through a gate.
This nature reserve is owned by Plantlife, but managed by North Wales Wildlife Trust, with whom we work closely.
Butterfly Orchids on the reserve
Nature Reserve Diary
Our Augill Pasture reserve is a shining example of mountain hay meadow habitat in Cumbria which needs careful year round management by the Plantlife and Cumbria Wildlife Trusts team. We hear from Nature Reserves Manager Andrew Kearsey about how we’ve been working to protect the reserve this winter.
One of the biggest issues facing our nature reserves is the ongoing management of Ash trees suffering from dieback – Augill is no different as the woodland there is about 10% Ash. Some of the ash trees were identified through our tree safety surveys as being diseased and close to footpaths and the car park.
Two of the diseased trees were overhanging the Augill Smelt Mill. Any limb shedding would cause further damage to this structure, which is on the Historic England Scheduled Monument At-Risk register.
We made the decision to employ a local firm of tree surgeons to remove both these trees and several other ash trees around the car park. This work was delivered working with our tenant for the reserve; Cumbria Wildlife Trust.
The trees were removed in Mid-January and I went recently to check on their progress. When I arrived they had cordoned off the car park and footpaths and had their climber in the larger of the two trees removing the higher limbs. By the time I left about 2 hours later, they had removed the majority of the limbs, while the ground crew had processed the brash and timber into log piles and brash windrows
Pony grazed meadows at Augill Pasture Nature Reserve. Image by Andrew Kearsey Andrew
The grassland at Augill Pasture is managed by grazing and unusually for our reserves it is grazed by ponies. Two small ponies were put on the reserve in October and were taken off recently, as the weather became very cold at the beginning of January. This grazing will have controlled the growth of the grass species, allowing the forb species enough space to grow as the weather turns warmer.”
Plantife’s Meadows Hub has everything you need to help you manage your meadow or grassland including practical step by step advice, resources, links to training days and expert knowledge
Only 3.2% of England’s land and sea is protected. This is why nature reserves are so important.
They are protected havens for wild plants and wildlife. Will you help keep them flourishing?
Erin Shott
Discover 4 new walk ideas and Scottish spring adventure inspiration from Plantlife Scotland’s Communications and Policy Officer, Erin Shott.
Look, the seasons, they are a-changing and I don’t know about you, but I am so looking forward to that sweet, sweet spring time weather. After the cold winter days and long winter nights, I am so ready to get out there and breathe in the freshness of spring.
I would highly recommend taking a visit to one of Scotland’s rainforests if you have the opportunity. The high rainfall, and mild temperatures result in lush mossy areas just bursting with lichens and bryophytes it really does feel like I’ve stepped into a fairy tale. And if that doesn’t attract your attention then you’ll be impressed with the sheer abundance, diversity, and rarity of the species of Scotland’s rainforest.
It won’t be my first visit to the temperate rainforest; however, I’ve visited Glen Nant in the past. Plantlife has a downloadable handy wild plant walk leaflet for the Glen Nant Important Plant Area (IPA), so it was a solid motivation for a visit for me.
But I hear you ask, what if I don’t want to visit a rainforest site? Looking for something short and located in the central belt?
Then download and check out North Berwick Law, our guide is for a nice 1 mile hike up one iconic hill in East Lothian. Plenty of opportunity to spot wild plants too, like Meadow Saxifrage Saxifraga granulata, this snow-white species is found in dry grasslands, or the hilariously named Cuckooflower Cardamine pratensis, due to its delicate purple flowers starting to bloom just as the cuckoo first begins its call.
If you’re the Munro bagging type, then check out the Ben Nevis IPA, a delightful 10-mile hike that is absolutely rich in Bog Asphodel Narthecium ossifragum a plant once used for its potential as a natural dye or the delightfully carnivorous Round-leaved Sundew Drosera rotundifolia (image by Michael Scott) which have long red-coloured stalks that are often seen with globules of ‘dew’ hanging from them. These globules are a polysaccharide solution to trap and digest their prey.
If you’re keen to spend a day out in the Cairngorms, take some time to discover Anagach woods IPA. Download your a free guide here. Soak in the wonders of the Caledonian pinewoods, maybe you’ll spot the rare and iconic Twinflower Linnaea borealis? This special plant is a focal point for our Cairngorms Rare Plants Project. You might also find some Wood sorrel Oxalis acetosella, with its clover-shaped leaves (that taste like apples), this springtime bloomer has delicate white flowers with lilac coloured veins.
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