Plants save the morning

For some daft reason I found myself at Canons Farm at the ungodly hour of 05.00... a calling Tawny Owl slightly convinced me that it was all worthwhile, but it slowly went downhill from there, with just a couple of Greylag Geese (patch goodie), a Swift, three House Martins, 4 Swallows and a Wheatear trying desperately hard to turn ornithological water into wine. It didn't work...

However, at times like these I can put another of my natural history hats on, so the 'botanical' one came out and I went to check the freshly ploughed strip at Fames Rough. This disturbance is irregularly carried out to help maintain the two ultra rare species that grow there - Ground Pine and Cut-leaved Germander. And the good news is that they are both present again this year, although the 11 GP and 3 C-LG plants that I found were on last years strip, roughly in the same place where the GP grew in 2015. This made me feel very happy indeed, as I understand that both species are not doing very well elsewhere.

Ground Pine, 01/05/16, Fames Rough
Cut-leaved Germander, 01/05/16, Fames Rough

Comments

Derek Faulkner said…
It's nice to see it reported that habitat disturbance can and is, beneficial. All to often some bloggers quickly moan at the first sight of disturbance on their patch without monitoring the long term benefits that arise. Yes, sometimes there is an immediate, short term, loss of habitat but often, such activation of soil can either spur things back into life, or re-growth of new vegetation can quickly replenish an area that had become tired and tangled.
2 May 2016 at 08:35
Steve Gale said…
You are right Derek, some people cannot see deliberate disturbance (whether it be wholesale clearance, felling of trees or ploughing) as anything but habitat vandalism. Some species need it to survive.
2 May 2016 at 11:19
Derek Faulkner said…
Poor lack of knowledge of countryside management I guess.
2 May 2016 at 15:27
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