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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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Platanthera chlorantha
You’re most likely to find Greater Butterfly-orchid on old or recently restored hay meadows, particularly on well drained calcareous soils. You can also find them on pastures, open scrub and woodland.
They look very similar to their close cousins the Lesser Butterfly-orchid but have slightly larger flowers that are green tinged rather than pure white. You can also look for the pollen bearing structures on their petals called pollinia. These sacs of pollen are V shaped on the Greater Butterfly-orchid but parallel shaped on the Lesser Butterfly-orchid.
This is found across Britain particularly in the south. It’s has steadily declined across the UK over the past 100 years. The reasons are varied but in woodlands where they need dappled sunlight, they have suffered from conifer plantation planting and changes to traditional woodland management.
In grasslands, farming changes, such as too much or too little grazing, or early hay cutting before the plant has chance to flower and set seed, have had a particularly negative effect. The use of chemical fertilizers have also disrupted the delicate soil fungal network that orchids rely on for survival.
Plantlife owns and manages two reserves in Wales that are rich in Greater Butterfly-orchid – Caeau Tan y Bwlch on the Llŷn peninsula in the north, and Cae Blaen-dyffryn above Lampeter in mid Wales. The latter also contains Lesser Butterfly-orchid, so giving you a great opportunity to see the subtle differences between these two beautiful orchid species.
Carolyn Thomas MS, is currently working with us as a Species Champion to raise awareness of Greater Butterfly-orchid and its causes of decline. Find out more about Species and Nature Champions here.
Oenanthe silaifolia
This is not an easy plant to easily identify because it looks like a lot of other ‘umbellifers’, plants topped by a mass of frothy white flowers such as Cow Parsley, Wild Carrot and Hogweed. But there are a few clues to help you find it.
First, like the other six native species of Water-dropwort in the UK, it is found in wet places. But this species is particularly associated with floodplain meadows where its tall, hollow, grooved, thin stems can reach up higher than most surrounding wildflowers. These are topped by 4-8 roundish masses of white flowers known as umbels, each lacking modified leaves (bracts) beneath the umbel.
Below ground, it has thick spindle shaped tubers.
As floodplain meadows have dramatically disappeared from the British countryside, so has Narrow-leaved Water-dropwort. There are only an estimated 1,100 hectares of water meadows remaining in England and Wales, less than the size of Heathrow Airport, but there are causes for optimism as society is waking up to the sustainable benefits of these special habitats. These irreplaceable meadows are incredible carbon stores and flood defences, as their deep and absorbent soils hold and slow the flow of flood water.
A heartening example is Lugg Meadow, one of the UK’s most important and historic floodplain meadows. The only known stronghold for Narrow-leaved Water-dropwort in Herefordshire, the county Wildlife Trust is currently delivering a Natural England Species Recovery project to secure the plant’s future on the meadow. Also found on stream sides, and Narrow-leaved Water-dropwort known to colonise restored wet grassland on habitat restoration schemes.
Ellie Chowns MP, is currently working with us as a Species Champion to raise awareness of Narrow-leaved Water-dropwort and its causes of decline.
Find out more about Species and Nature Champions here.
Glechoma hederacea
Ground Ivy is an aromatic creeping herb with funnel-shaped violet flowers.
This small, common evergreen perennial belongs to the mint family and spreads rapidly in a carpet-like form due to its creeping stems. Despite its name, it is not closely related to common ivy.
Ground Ivy has upright flowering stems bearing between two and four violet two-lipped flowers in a whorl. The lower lip has purple spots. Its leaves are scalloped in shape, which may explain why catsfoot is one of its many nicknames.
It is commonly found in woodlands, meadows, hedgerows, and wasteland throughout the British Isles, although it is rarer in Scotland. It also thrives in lawns as it survives mowing.
Cypripedium calceolus
The best time to see Lady’s-slipper in bloom is the springtime, between May and June. However, they are not a flower that you‘re likely to come across on your morning walk. Once widespread across Cumbria, Durham, Lancashire, Yorkshire and Derbyshire, Lady’s-slipper suffered severe losses as a result of over-collecting and habitat loss. By 1917 it was thought to be extinct in the wild.
Over the last few years, we’ve been working with partners Natural England, Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, the National Trust and the Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland (BSBI) on a project led by Yorkshire Wildlife Trust, to bring the plant back from the brink.
Read the full story here.
For years there was just one single Lady’s-slipper in the wild in the UK, and it‘s location remains a closely guarded secret.
Today, a number of the plants are flourishing in the wild and there is once again the chance for the public to witness these wonderful wildflowers in their natural habitat.
For a chance to see the orchid, you can visit Kilnsey Park near Grassington in the Yorkshire Dales in late May and early June. You can find more information here.
Photo shows Lady’s-slipper seed pod – all photos taken by Kevin Walker
Platanthera bifolia
The best time to see the Lesser Butterfly-orchid is spring into summertime with June to July being the peak flowering time.
The Lesser Butterfly-orchid is a sweet-smelling plant, which grows across the UK. It can be found in a range of habitats, such as grasslands, meadows, bogs, woodlands, calcareous fens, and scrub, although it may be difficult to spot as it has declined in recent years.
Unfortunately, the Lesser Butterfly-orchid has been lost from much of its habitat in the UK, and is now endangered. One of the reasons for this decline is an increased use in agricultural chemicals which eradicate the soil fungi necessary for the plant to survive.
Carolyn Thomas MS, is currently working with us as a Species Champion to raise awareness of Lesser Butterfly-orchid and its causes of decline.
Drymocallis rupestris
Photograph taken by Nahhan
Rock Cinquefoil is part of the Potentilla genus, which contains more than 500 species of flowering plants in the rose family (Rosaceae). They are commonly called cinquefoil. They typically look similar to strawberry plants but differ with their fruits usually being dry and their seeds – each being technically a single fruit are actually tiny nuts.
It can be found in only a handful of sites across Britain, and populations are small. A species recovery project taking place in Wales at Criggion Quarry, Montgomeryshire has bolstered populations by collecting seeds and using transplants as part of their ongoing quarry restoration plan.
Native in Britain, but it is a rare native flower in the wild, it can only be found in two locations in Scotland and three in Mid-Wales, and one of the sites in Wales is thought to be an introduction.
The Genus name ‘Potentilla’ comes from the Latin ‘potens’, meaning ‘powerful’ in reference to the reputed medicinal properties of the plant. It was first described by Linnaeus in 1753. The genus is said to have been used in both medicine and magic since the time of Hippocrates.
It’s species name ‘rupestris’ comes from the Latin word for rock, ‘rupes’, meaning it lives on cliffs or rocks.
Moneses uniflora
One-flowered Wintergreen can be a hard one to spot. As well as being very rare, it’s a small, single-flowered plant that grows on the forest floor, which can make it harder to see.
It is a distinctive plant however. Each plant has just 1 stem, and 1 flower. The flower heads are white, with 5 petals and 5 filaments with anthers, leaves at the base of the plant form in a rosette.
This pretty plant is very rare. In the UK, it can only be found in pine woods in North East Scotland.
One-flowered Wintergreen only occurs at specific sites, and is often isolated to an area a few tens of metres across in a large and apparently suitable woodland.
As part of a possibly global decline, we have recorded it going locally extinct at more than half of the sites it was recorded at, since 2000.
We have been working with this plant up in the Cairngorms and have had some break throughs in understanding it better. Read more about our work with One-flowered Wintergreen here.
We have been working hard to save this tiny wildflower in Scotland. In Autumn 2023 we translocated 109 individual One-flowered Wintergreen rosettes from two sites in to RSPB Abernethy, reinforcing a tiny relic population.
The translocation was a huge success, with a 70 per cent survival success rate one year on. Read the full story here.
We are currently continuing our work with the species through our Resilience and Recovery, Helping Rare Species Adapt to a Changing World project. Follow our journey here.
Two delicate One-flowered Wintergreen plants appear on the forest floor, taken by Keilidh Ewan
A One-Flowered Wintergreen bloom droops it’s head toward the forest floor, photograph taken by Keilidh Ewan
A close up of a One-flowered Wintergreen flower head taken by Keilidh Ewan
A One-flowered Wintergreen plant is photographed on the forest floor next to other small woodland plants photograph taken by Keilidh Ewan
A pretty One-flowered Wintergreen wildflower grows on the forest floor bathed in sunlight, taken by Keilidh Ewan
Three One-flowered Wintergreen plants can be seen in bud, taken by Keilidh Ewan
A close-up image of a One-flowered Wintergreen flowerhead, taken by Keilidh Ewan
A close-up image of a One-flowered Wintergreen taken by Keilidh Ewan
Succisa pratensis
Devil’s-bit Scabious is part of the Globulariaceae family which includes similar looking relatives such as Small Scabious Scabiosa columbaria and Field Scabious Knautia arvensis.
They all have similar looking rounded composite flower heads, made up of many tiny flowers. They are usually blue in colour, though can sometimes be purple. You can tell Devil’s-bit from it’s relatives as it has long oval leaves.
Devil’s-bit Scabious is a perennial plant that grows up to 100cm.
This plant prefers damp environments and can be found in marshes, wet heathlands, fens and woodlands.
It is a common plant that is found all over the UK.
Tripleurospermum maritimum
Sea Mayweed is very similar to it’s relative the Scentless Mayweed. One way to spot the difference is that the Sea Mayweed has shorter and thicker leaves that are quite succulent.
It belongs to the Daisy family and, like it’s relative is a composite, which means the ‘flower’ head that you see is actually made up of many different tiny flowers. Just like the Daisy, these consist of white ray florets and then yellow disc florets in the centre.
Sea Mayweed is a perennial plant that grows up to 60cm high with 4cm flowering heads.
As the name suggests, this is a coastal plant that loves to be close to the sea. You can find it all around the UK, on cliffs, sea walls and beaches as well as waste ground that is near the ocean.
Sea Mayweed belongs to the Asteraceae family, which is the largest plant family in the world and contains species ranging from the Common Daisy Bellis perennis to the Lettuce and from Sunflowers Helianthus, to Artichokes!
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