Tim Wilkins — Old Varieties

Once common across southern England, meadow clary, a rare blue wild flower, had almost disappeared from the Gloucestershire countryside.

However, following a rescue attempt by a conservation partnership including site-owners Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust, Natural England and farmer Bill Powell, the future of meadow clary is more secure and can be enjoyed for generations to come.

Box Farm Meadows, known locally as Stuart Fawkes Nature Reserve, near Nailsworth is one of the most important sites in Britain for meadow clary and is protected as a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSI).

Meadow clary was first recorded in Gloucestershire in 1796.

Plantlife expert Tim Wilkins said: “I’ve been working on conserving meadow clary with Plantlife for over ten years and I can truly say this is an unprecedented result’

“Gloucestershire is a vital part of the plant’s distribution which is almost entirely confined to the Cotswolds.”

“When we started this project four years ago, meadow clary was facing extinction at the site but, thanks to this conservation partnership, the proportion of young plants at Box Farm Meadows has increased from 2% to 30%.

“With nearly a third of the population now consisting of young plants, the future of the wild flower is much rosier.”

Nerve-wracking decision

Previously, cattle had been removed from the nature reserve over summer when meadow clary was in flower.

Unfortunately, over time, this had led to coarse grass dominating and the dense vegetation was preventing the meadow clary from dropping its seed onto the ground and germinating.

In a radically counter-intuitive move, the conservationists asked farmer Bill Powell to keep his livestock on the site over the summer.

This flower is highly adapted to withstand grazing and appears to spread sideways via underground shoots when continuously grazed.

It was a nerve-wracking decision to make as meadow clary had been categorised as in 100% decline at the site, the worst possible condition of assessment, and the wrong decision could have ended its place in the Gloucestershire flora.

Four years later, the coarse grasses have receded, there are many more wild flowers, and pockets of bare ground have allowed meadow clary seed to germinate.

Meadow clary fact file

Meadow clary has striking violet-blue flowers, aromatic leaves and can grow up to 80cm tall.
The name ‘clary’ is derived from ‘clear-eye’ and refers to the traditional use of meadow clary seeds to treat sore and inflamed eyes.
Sometimes known as meadow sage, the plant’s botanical name Salvia pratensis hints at its historical use – salvia comes from the Latin for salvation, and the plant was said to be sown on graves in medieval times.

A conservation project to save the juniper bush in lowland England appears to be working, according to the charity Plantlife.

Three hundred juniper seedlings are now growing at nine sites, where existing juniper bushes were old and incapable of reproducing.

The project has involved trialling new techniques on the chalk and limestone of lowland southern England.

[pullquote]The loss of juniper would have represented more than the loss of a single species: it supports more than 40 species of insect and fungus that cannot survive without it
Tim Wilkins, Plantlife[/pullquote]

The aromatic berries are used in the production of gin.

Tim Wilkins, Plantlife’s Species Recovery Coordinator who led the project, said: “Plantlife’s Great Juniper Hunt survey in 2010-11 showed that many populations of juniper were shrinking as bushes died of old age, with nearly a quarter of sites supporting just one bush.

“85% of sites surveyed contained no seedlings up to five years old.

“To get the next generation of juniper, you need good numbers of both male and female juniper bushes at each site, plenty of viable seed and the right conditions for germination and growth of seedlings, free of hungry rabbits and grazing stock.’

“The loss of juniper would have represented more than the loss of a single species: it supports more than 40 species of insect and fungus that cannot survive without it.”

Period of decline

Juniper is an important part of our ancient landscape and culture and, according to Plantlife, one of the first trees to colonise Britain after the last Ice Age.

Juniper populations have fluctuated but on the whole declined over a long period, with many southern English counties having lost 60-70% of their populations.

Without action, juniper was facing extinction here in the next 50 years, so in early 2010,

“There is no single cause for juniper decline” added Mr Wilkins, “but loss of seedling habitat through under-grazing and the development of dense grassland and scrub, seems to be the most widespread.”

Preventing infection

The word ‘gin’ derives from either genièvre or jenever – the French and Dutch words for ‘juniper’.

The berries are also used in cooking, particularly to flavour game dishes. In the 19th century, when a law was introduced outlawing unlicensed whisky stills, juniper was harvested for fuel for this illicit trade as it burns with an almost invisible smoke.

Juniper has also long been used for its medicinal qualities.

During the 1918 Spanish Flu epidemic, hospitals experimented with spraying vapourised oils into the atmosphere of flu wards in an attempt to prevent air-borne infection spreading and juniper was one of those found to be particularly effective.

Breaking new ground for juniper

The techniques used throughout the project are detailed in a new Plantlife guide – Breaking new ground for juniper – a lowland management handbook.

The Lowland England Juniper Project was funded by Natural England, Biffaward and Buckinghamshire County Council, with additional funding from the HDH Wills Charitable Trust.

Meadow clary secure in Gloucestershire

Juniper seedlings preserve plant in England