Garden Wildflower Meadow

---

Species List

---

Cut-leaved cranesbill was a wildflower already present in the sward.

A few Scarlet Pimpernel plants flowered in June 2006

Corncockle 13 6 06 from seeds sown direct into meadow in July 2005

One of the great pleasures of this project was discovering that a variety of meadow species were already present in the sward. Dandelions and common mouse-ear were of no surprise but the spring show of cuckooflowers was a real treat. This is a key food plant of the orange-tip butterfly, which lays its eggs just below the flowers for the caterpillars to eat the developing seedpods. I will keep my fingers crossed that one day a female will fly to my meadow and establish a colony of one of my favourite butterflies. Several annual species were recorded in 2006 including several colourful species shown above. This was perhaps as a result of the very close cut in July 2005 that exposed the ground surface in places and allowed dormant seeds in the soil a chance to germinate. It will be interesting to see how these species fare in the future. A list of plant species is shown below with my introduced species in italics:

1	Creeping Buttercup	Abundant in meadow. This is a species that I hope will decline as the level soil nutrients drop.
2	Meadow Buttercup	Less than 5 plants
3	Cuckooflower	Under 10 plants in 2004-6
4	Common Dog Violet	Two plants introduced in summer 2005
5	Sweet Violet	One planted under birch tree spring 2006
6	Common Mouse-ear	Abundant in meadow.
7	Corncockle	Seeds were introduced after the summer cut in 2005. Many plants germinated during the summer, survived the autumn mowing and flowered in June 2006. This is not a typical meadow species as it is adapted to growing in regularly disturbed soil such as in cornfields. However, its introduction to this meadow was a great success.
8	Cut-leaved Crane’s-bill	Common in meadow.
9	Meadow Crane’s-bill	One plant introduced autumn 2005.
10	Field Bindweed
11	Red Clover	Less than 5 plants. This is an important nectar plant for bumblebees.
12	White Clover
13	Common Vetch	Less than 5 plants.
14	Common Bird’s-foot-trefoil	Three plants introduced spring and summer 2005. I mowed round these during the summer as they were in flower. They were the best flower for bumblebees in the meadow that year.
15	Kidney Vetch	One plant flowered in July 2006.
16	Creeping Cinquefoil	Common plant in meadow.
17	Wild Carrot	One plant grew up next to a cowslip introduced from Kenfig in autumn 2004. I mowed round this in 2005 as it was in flower.
18	Dock spp	I pulled up the one dock that grew up in spring 2006.
19	Common Sorrel	Less than 5 plants.
20	Cowslip	One plant introduced autumn 2004 from Kenfig with a little turf. Flowered in 2005 and mowed round. Seeds from this plant were sown into pots in the autumn and germinated Spring 2006. Thirty plugs were purchased from Wriggly Wrigglers in the spring. These were split into individual plants and grown up in pots resulting in over 70 plants. Some of these were planted directly into the meadow in late spring. The rest were planted out in the autumn. Over 50 plants flowered in 2006.
21	Scarlet Pimpernel	One plant flowered in June 2006.
22	Germander Speedwell	Less than 10 plants flowered in June 2006.
23	Thyme-leaved Speedwell	Common in meadow.
24	Yellow Rattle	Seeds were sown onto meadow after the summer cut in summer 2005. Several grew and flowered in 2006
25	Selfheal
26	Ribwort Plantain	Less than 5 plants.
27	Greater Plantain
28	Common Ragwort	Less than 5 plants.
29	Groundsel	Less than 5 plants.
30	Oxeye Daisy	Planted in spring 2005 and at least one plant flowered. Its seeds were spread late summer. Many plants flowered in 2006.
31	Daisy	Abundant in meadow.
32	Prickly Sow-thistle	About 10 plants in 2005 and 2006. In 2006 plants were pulled up just as they were about to flower.
33	Yarrow	An abundant component of meadow.
34	Black Knapweed	Planted in spring 2005.
35	Dandelion	Became very abundant in spring 2006 with over 100 plants flowering.
36	Common Cat’s-ear	10-20 flowered in June 2006.
37	Smooth Hawk’s-beard	A single plant flowered in June 2006.
38	Annual Meadow-grass	Common.
39	Crested Dog’s-tail	Two plants flowered in June 2006.
40	Soft Brome	Thirty plants flowered in June 2006.
41	Meadow Barley	Between 200-400 plants.
42	Bread Wheat	Three plants in 2006.
43	Yorkshire Fog
44	Perennial Rye-grass
45	Timothy

	Home
About Me	My Lawn	Management
Planting Scheme	Plant List	Wildlife Photographs
	Top Ten Tips