Steeped in scrub

Returned to a site with Glorious Grasslands that we last visited two years ago. It’s a steep, south facing, species rich calcareous grassland bank that gets overrun with scrub, primarily small hawthorn.

The patch we did last time was in a pretty good state – it gets grazed, and the surviving hawthorn were only knee height. Today we tackled the adjoining area which had a big array of fairly mature hawthorn which shade the grassland. This site is also a receptor for the very rare pasqueflower, so everything will benefit from ongoing management.

There was one plant in flower already on the site – the very delicate and beautiful Hairy Violet.

No brushcutting for me today, although Chris did the top part of the site in the morning and cleared the low level hawthorn in the afternoon.

So it was loppers and saw to remove around 50% of the hawthorn on the bank. I chose the bigger ones and left the younger ones – we don’t want to eradicate completely.

Tough work dragging the arisings a short distance uphill, and then tossing it over a fence onto the level, from where the farmer will collect it later.

It’s difficult for me to identify plants at this time of year – the leaves are too small, and no flower heads. However, I did spot a lot of common rockrose, especially on the many anthills.

The team is returning here again next week, but I won’t be available for the next two weeks.