Exploring of the Solway Coast Area of WildflowersOutstanding Natural Beauty 1 1 1 Contents Introduction to the AONB 4 About Plants and Flowers 5 The Dune Habitat – Strandline Community 6 The Dune Habitat – Mobile Dune Community 8 The Dune Habitat – Fixed Dunes 9 The Marsh Habitat 20 The Raised Mire Habitat 23 Access and Safety 26 Places to Visit 27 Transport 28 Further Reading 31 Exploring Wildflowers of the Solway Coast AONB 3 IMPORTANT NOTE: Many traditional uses of some of the plants have been included. We do not advise you Introduction to try any of these, they are for information only. The Solway Coast AONB Partnership and its members take no responsibility if you do. Introduction to the AONB which can only survive where the dune traditional hedge ‘kests’( raised stone or in pollen (male cells) which they then grasses are kept short, either by grazing, earth banks on which a hedge is laid) transfer to another plant of the same type The Solway Coast Area of Outstanding cutting or erosion. Like wise, the delicate also provide a fine habitat for wildflowers when they move on for more nectar. Natural Beauty (AONB) was designated in native wildflowers of the dunes can only which may no longer be found in Thus, the pollen falls onto the female 1964 and covers around 118 square exist in similar conditions and where rank cultivated fields. reproductive parts of the flowers and kilometres of the Solway Plain. The area is coarse grasses, thatch, and invasive fertilise the ova (egg cells). Insects, under management through the Solway The buildings of the AONB are an weeds are removed by grazing, cutting particularly, bees, butterflies, and moths Coast Management Unit and is governed important part of its landscape too. or pulling. are vital in plant fertilisation. by a Joint Advisory Committee. Fortified buildings that reflect the area’s The raised mires, collectively called the turbulent past are not still part of the local Other plants use the wind to help pollinate. The Solway Coast is a unique landscape, ‘South Solway Mosses’, are rare and community life. Squat fishermen’s These flowers are often dull and drab as shaped by the sea, the wind, and the wonderful places. Across England, cottages, cobbled streets, clay ‘dabbin’ they do not need to attract insects. They people who have lived here. lowland bogs have been steadily barns and red sandstone farms, are also often inconspicuous and coloured It is the air of wilderness, an all too rare declining in extent and quality for Cumberland long houses and Georgian green/yellow. terraces all give each village its own quality in today’s landscape that is most centuries, mainly due to human One of the best ways to find out more character, and are a source of local pride. important to some. The salt marshes, influence. About 94% of Britain’s raised about wildflowers is to attend a guided sand dunes and raised mires can convey bogs have been lost or damaged in the Whatever makes the AONB special, walk given by the staff or volunteers of the the illusion of being far from civilisation. last 200 years. A project, ‘Peatlands for management is needed to help Solway Coast AONB, or just get out and People’, jointly run by English Nature, The marshes have been farmed for maintain and enhance those unique about with friends or family and see what Cumbria Wildlife Trust, the Royal Society centuries, probably first cultivated by the qualities. The AONB designation itself, you find on a walk. for the Protection of Birds and the monks of the Cistercian Abbey of Holme National Nature Reserves, Sites of Environment Agency is ongoing to The wild flowers included in this booklet Cultram, who raised more than 6,000 Special Scientific Interest, Conservation restore the natural wealth of Cumbria’s do not provide an exhaustive list, nor sheep on the lush grasses. Areas, a Special Area for Conservation have trees, grasses, ferns, mosses or raised peat bogs and link them to the and a Special Protection Area all bear Today the marshes are still important for lichens been included. region’s culture, economy and way of life. witness to the Local, National and local agriculture, and also support huge The mosses provide an ideal place for International recognition of this very Hopefully, it will give a brief insight into the flocks of wildfowl, which have made the viewing wildlife and specialised plant life. important landscape has already huge diversity of plants to be found in the Solway Firth renowned and gained it Solway Coast AONB, and provide a little Behind the coast, the agricultural land of received and deserves. status as a RAMSAR (internationally history of the use and local names given the AONB is typified by the small fields, important for wildlife) site. Numerous About plants and flowers to the plants, whilst spurring on further which are hard to find elsewhere. Many wildflowers exist on the marshes due to of these small enclosures probably date Plants produce flowers for reproduction. interest and research into this very special the grazing both by livestock and wildfowl. back to medieval times and are another They are bright and colourful and area and it’s inhabitants. The sand dunes are an important example of the way the Solway designed to attract insects, which feed off A list of further reading is included for breeding site for the rare natterjack toad, landscape is linked to its history. The the nectar. The insects become covered more detailed information. 4 Exploring Wildflowers of the Solway Coast AONB Exploring Wildflowers of the Solway Coast AONB 5 Scentless Mayweed Matricaria maritima Flowers from July - September and Sea Campion Sea Spurge is a native perennial It is common Silene vulgaris ssp. Maritima Euphorbia paralias throughout Britain on verges and by the sea shingle. Flowers May - July, a native perennial, locally Flowers from July - October, it is a native common on shingle and sea cliffs throughout perennial of sand dunes and fairly common Britain. In Northumberland this plant was in Britain. called ‘Witches Thimbles’. Sea Sandwort Sea Bindweed Sea Holly Honkenya peploides Calystigia soldanella Eryngium maritinum Flowers May - August, a native perennial Flowers June - August, and is a native perennial Flowers July - September, and found on the found on all British coasts, sand dunes and of sand dunes and sea- shores. The funnel mobile dunes. It is adapted to life on the coast vegetated shingle. shaped flowers open during the day and close with a thick waxy cuticle (outer skin) on the at night. Ordinary bindweed used to be called leaves and stalks, preventing water loss and ‘Devil’s Guts’ (referring to the long white roots), protecting from the effects of saltwater. The as hoeing or digging out always results in roots were candied with sugar and orange flower breaking the root and a new plant forms. water and sold from the 1600s to the 1800s. 6 Exploring Wildflowers of the Solway Coast AONB Exploring Wildflowers of the Solway Coast AONB 7 Spear- leaved Orache Burnet Rose Eyebright Atriplex hastata Rosa pimpinellifolia Euphrasia officinalis Flowers June – August. It is common near Flowers May - July, it is a native shrub and Flowers June - September, it is a native the sea and waste places. A related plant, common on coastal areas except the South annual common throughout Britain in Common Orache, is grown as a garden plant East. It is rare inland, and generally found on grasslands. The flowers are mainly white but and eaten as a vegetable similar to spinach, dunes and sandy heaths. The flowers are tinged with purple. In the Middle Ages Eyebright it is also known as ‘Fat Hen’ and was used creamy white, and the stems have dense was used for brightening the eyes. as a pot herb. prickles Ox-eye Daisy Leucanthemum vulgare Flowers May - August, it is a common native perennial found in road verges, meadows and scrub land. It is also known as Dog Daisy or Moon Daisy and in Cumbria it has been called Bull Daisy, Dog Flower, White Gull and White Golds. In the Sand Leek past it has been used for chest complaints Allium scorodoprasum and also to cure ulcers and wounds. The plant has been associated with St John in other European countries and also the Flowers June – August, it is a bulbous daisies were hung around house doors perennial, a member of the chive family, and roofs to ward away thunder and growing to a height of about 80cms. lightning, hence it has other local names It grows on sand dunes, wasteland, roadsides, such as Dunder or Thunder Daisy. grasslands and open deciduous woodland. 8 Exploring Wildflowers of the Solway Coast AONB Exploring Wildflowers of the Solway Coast AONB 9 Common Mouse-ear Autumn Hawkbit Perennial Sow-thistle Goat’s-beard Cerastium fontanum Leontondon autumnalis Sonchus arvensis Tragopogon pratensis Flowers April – September and is a very Flowers from June - October, it is a very Flowers from July – October, it is a common Flowers June – July, and is a native annual or common perennial found in grasslands, waste common British perennial growing on grasslands, British perennial which grows on marshes, perennial found in dunes, waste places, verges areas and hedge verges. verges and screes. dunes, verges and grasslands. and grasslands. The flowers open early and close at noon and this gives rise to its common name of ‘Jack-go-to-bed-at-noon’. Black Medick Mouse-ear Hawkweed Creeping Cinquefoil Smooth Hawk’s-beard Medicago lupulina Hieracium pilosella Potentila reptens Crepis capillaris Flowers from April - August, it is a native Flowers from May - September, It is a native Flowers June – September, it is a common British Flowers May – September and is a native per- annual common in grassland and verges in plant varying a lot in leaf shape and hairiness.