A botanical Rant

Having a little botanical rant here.

Summer solstice, and the local grass verges are looking amazing. I am lucky in that I live in Cumbria in the middle of nowhere and that the County Council doesn’t get round to mowing our verges till the autumn. Also that the nearest large village is surrounded by what the CC designates “special verges” of high botanical importance.

All this makes me dubious when people in other areas post photographs on social media of big urban areas which are sowing “wild flowers” in “meadows” (quotation marks for irony). These are sown with seed mixes containing arable annuals, including non-natives such as the California Poppy and French Spinach (Red Orache). The result may be pretty but by definition, these are not meadows, which are permanent grassland not arable fields. It’s gardening – admirable, well carried out, eye-catching, but not, as some claim, restoring degraded habitat. It’s more colourful and a bit more diverse than super-mown grass verges, and it saves the councils some expense, which is a fair enough reason to do it, but outside of urban settings it’s inappropriate.

I fear for the natural British flora at the hands of well intentioned but uninformed gardeners.

As I mentioned above, I’m in a rural area. Step out of the farm gate with me, onto the lane which is an ancient drove road, in its heyday a route for cattle and goods being walked into the industrial towns. It’s mown once a year now by the Council, in September or October. I don’t suppose it held as much flora or insect life in the old days as it does now – travelling hooves and teeth will have seen to that. But there were meadows and moorland either side of it and when the hooves and teeth disappeared, it came back.

The verges now are astonishingly diverse.

Walk 200 yards each way with me. Instead of the scientific binomials that I have come to prefer I’ll give you common English names, which to a writer are as much of a joy as the flowers and plants themselves.

Northwards:

1. Grasses: Rye grass

2. Rough meadow grass

3. Wavy hair grass

4. Quaking grass

5. Sweet vernal grass

6. Yorkshire fog

7. False Oat

8. False brome

9. Cocksfoot

10. Ferns: Male Fern

11. Lady Fern

12. Shrubs: Northern Downy Rose

13. Sherard’s Downy Rose

14. Summer snowflake (an escape from my garden, not planted)

15. Geranium macrorrhizum (an escape from my garden, not planted)

16. Giant Bellflower (native but an escape from my garden, not planted)

17. Wood cranesbill

18. Meadow cranesbill

19. Herb Robert

20. Nipplewort

21. Meadow vetchling

22. Bush vetch

23. Birds-foot trefoil

24. White clover

25. Red clover

26. Feverfew

27. Cinquefoil

28. Silverweed

29. Meadow buttercup

30. Bulbous buttercup

31. Common chickweed

32. Mouse-ear chickweed

33. Common sallow

34. Eyebright

35. Great willowherb

36. Lady’s mantle

37. Water avens

38. Mouse-ear hawkweed

39. Rough hawkbit

40. Marsh thistle

41. Spear thistle

42. 3 different species of dandelions

43. Common daisy

44. Ox-eye daisy

45. Germander speedwell

46. Field speedwell

47. Meadowsweet

48. Betony

49. Self-heal

50. Hedge woundwort

51. Harebell

52. Crosswort

53. Common sorrel

54. Cow parsley

55. Black Knapweed

56. Garlic Mustard

57. Hedge bedstraw

58. Lady’s bedstraw

59. Foxglove

60. Yarrow

61. Welsh Poppy

62. Ribwort plantain

Southwards

1. Grasses: Rye grass

2. Rough meadow grass

3. Wavy hair grass

4. Sweet vernal grass

5. Yorkshire fog

6. False Oat

7. Cocksfoot

8. Ferns: Male Fern

9. Lady Fern

10. Common Polypody

11. Shrubs: Common sallow

12. Bay willow

13. Blackthorn

14. Wild plum (Prunus domestica)

15. Hawthorn

16. Bird cherry

17. Ash

18. Hazel

19. Northern Downy Rose

20. Sherard’s Downy Rose

21. Wood cranesbill

22. Meadow cranesbill

23. Herb Robert

24. Shining cranesbill

25. Meadow vetchling

26. Bush vetch

27. Tufted vetch

28. Birds-foot trefoil

29. White clover

30. Red clover

31. Cinquefoil

32. Silverweed

33. Meadow buttercup

34. Celandine

35. Common chickweed

36. Mouse-ear chickweed

37. Broad-leaved willowherb

38. Lady’s mantle

39. Water avens

40. Wood avens

41. Rough hawkbit

42. Marsh thistle

43. 3 different species of dandelions

44. Ox-eye daisy

45. Goat’s-beard

46. Germander speedwell

47. Field speedwell

48. Meadowsweet

49. Betony

50. Self-heal

51. Hedge woundwort

52. Crosswort

53. Common sorrel

54. Cow parsley

55. Pignut

56. Raspberry

57. Wild strawberry

58. Barren strawberry

59. Common Dog-violet

60. Blinks

61. Brooklime

62. Black Knapweed

63. Melancholy thistle

64. Garlic Mustard

65. Lady’s Smock

66. Wood forgetmenot

67. Changing forgetmenot

68. Cleavers

69. Hedge bedstraw

70. Lady’s bedstraw

71. Hogweed

72. Foxglove

73. Yarrow

74. Red Campion

75. Welsh Poppy

76. Ribwort plantain

77. And the odd nettle and common dock, but not many because everything else keeps them in check.

These lists are from memory alone…And that’s without going half a mile up the road where the verges are graced by Northern Marsh Orchid and Common Spotted Orchid and a myriad of their hybrids, plus Bilberry, Lemon-Scented Fern and Hard Fern. All on the roadside.

If I went out with a clipboard throughout the year and noted everything I saw either side of our house I could easily list up to 100 species of plant in a quarter-mile of road. 

Lots of plant diversity brings lots of insect diversity, plentiful insects bring diverse bird and animal life.

Many other verges can be as diverse as ours if they are not mown to within an inch of their life by lawn-obsessives – and if they are spared the attentions of the sow-a-meadow apostles.

Yes, OK, sow native annuals where you have already got a degraded grass verge.

But leave the good’uns alone please.