In the hamlet of Whitton, Shropshire lies the tiny Norman church of St Mary’s, it’s churchyard a swaying sea of ox-eye daisies. Peaceful and hidden from the road, this place has remained largely unchanged for centuries.
On Sunday 11th June St Mary’s was host to local WI groups, who came together to discover more about our native wildflowers, and how to identify and interpret what they saw. ‘’We’re looking for what the flowers are trying to tell us.’’
St Mary’s churchyard is managed for wildlife by a small team of volunteers and the session started by asking what this involved. Local resident Nicole Landers explained that they actually do very little: ‘‘the meadow looks after itself’’. However, what the volunteers do do is crucial to the meadow’s ongoing survival; they cut the hay and rake if off at the end of the summer to keep the nutrient levels in the soil low and allow the flowers to flourish.
The session was lead by Caroline Uff, an ecologist with an extensive knowledge of, and enthusiasm for our native flowers and grasses. She started by explaining that the plants we found would fall into one of three categories: 1. the negative indicators, thuggish species like thistle, nettle and dock. 2. the nice, but relatively common species such as buttercup and clover and 3. The rare species, indicative of ancient grassland.
Caroline then went on to describe an easy rule of thumb when looking at an area of grassland: if you can count less than 7 different species in a square metre you’re probably not looking at anything exciting, 7-15 species is good and if you can count over 15 different species then you have something really special!
Clipboards in hand we ventured out into the sunshine to start surveying. A wealth of smaller species were discovered beneath the ox-eye daisies including; birdsfoot trefoil, vetch, knapweed, cinquefoil, selfheal and cat’s ear. When we included the different grass species we were quickly recording far more than 20 species per metre, demonstrating what a special place St Mary’s is.
The WI groups left equipped with the enthusiasm and resources to record in their local churchyards, with the aim of mapping more species rich meadows – the first step in the protection of this increasingly rare and precious habitat.
