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Lowland Calcareous Grassland a Scarce and Special Habitat

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Lowland Calcareous Grassland a Scarce and Special Habitat Lowland calcareous grassland A scarce and special habitat English Nature is the Government agency that champions the conservation of wildlife and natural features throughout England. This is one of a range of publications published by External Relations Team English Nature Northminster House Peterborough PE1 1UA www.english-nature.org.uk © English Nature 2001 Printed by W Lake (Birmingham) Ltd, 15M Printed on Evolution Satin, 75% recycled post-consumer waste paper, Elemental Chlorine Free. ISBN 1 85716 539 X Catalogue code IN6.1 Front cover pictures: Top left: Bloody crane’s-bill - Peter Wakely. working today Bottom left: Cat’s-ear pot beetle - Roger Key. Designed by Status Design Main: Crook Peak to Shute Shelve Hill, & Advertising. Somerset - Peter Wakely. for nature tomorrow “The air, especially in the evening of a hot spring day, is full of a fresh herby smell, to which many minute aromatic plants contribute...” “The vegetation has the appearance of a beautiful tapestry worked in various shades of green, roughened with the slender dry bents standing The Devils Kneading Trough, Wye & Crundale Downs, Kent. Whitbarrow, Cumbria. Photograph - Richard Jefferson. Photograph - Stephen Davis. out like pale yellow thread-ends from colder, wetter uplands and mountains slopes, escarpments and coastal cliffs The outcrop of chalk and the green texture; flecked, and in limestone (calcareous) rocks in of northern England, Wales, and headlands, although, more rarely, the United Kingdom. Fragments of lowland calcareous grassland places splashed with brilliant colour - Northern Ireland and Scotland. there are some areas on level ground occur at lower altitudes within Lowland calcareous grassland is one of or plains, such as in the East Anglian this area. red, purple, blue, and yellow.” the United Kingdom’s rarest and most Breckland and on Salisbury Plain. threatened habitats. (Extract from W.H. Hudson, 1900 Nature in Important concentrations occur in downland. Longmans, Green & Co., London) Where is it found? the downs of Wiltshire, Dorset, Sussex, Hampshire and Kent, the What is lowland calcareous Lowland calcareous grassland is found Cotswolds, the Derbyshire Dales, the grassland? on lime-rich soils, usually over Breckland, the limestone outcrops limestone or chalk. The soils are and coastal cliffs and headlands of Lowland calcareous grassland is made generally well-draining, and are often north and south Wales, and around up of many different kinds of shallow and infertile. Lowland Morecambe Bay. Only small areas of lime-loving plants, including grasses, calcareous grassland occurs mainly in this grassland have been found in herbs, mosses and lichens, that the warmer, drier areas of England Scotland and Northern Ireland. together provide a habitat for a wide and Wales. The calcareous grassland that occurs variety of insects and birds. This type at low levels around the coast of north of grassland is different from the Remaining areas of this grassland are west Scotland is closer in character to calcareous grassland that occurs in the now found mostly on steep valley upland calcareous grassland. © Crown copyright 2 3 The typical herbs of lowland calcareous grassland produce a glorious spectrum of colours from the spring through to early autumn. Spring and early summer produces a carpet of yellow flowers with cowslip, common bird’s-foot-trefoil, common rock-rose, kidney vetch and horseshoe vetch. White and Worms Head, Gower Coast. Photograph - David Woodfall/NHPA. Worms cream-coloured flowers of oxeye Why is it important for wildlife? Lowland calcareous grassland is daisy and dropwort are prominent remarkable for the intricate mixture of from late May onwards. Late summer The rich variety of plants and plants it contains including grasses, is the best time for purple and mauve animals which make up lowland sedges, herbs, mosses, liverworts and flowers with small scabious, autumn calcareous grassland includes many lichens. A careful search may reveal as gentian, devil’s-bit scabious, rare and scarce plants, birds and many as 40 plant species in a square clustered bellflower and dwarf thistle invertebrates. Lowland calcareous metre. Grasses such as sheep’s-fescue, producing a riot of colour. Lowland grassland thus has considerable upright brome, meadow oat-grass and calcareous grasslands are also home nature conservation value. It is also crested hair-grass are characteristic of to a large number of rare and an important part of some of the many of these grasslands. In eastern declining flowering plants. Among UK’s most attractive landscapes such Durham and the Morecambe Bay area these are the orchids which often as the rolling chalk downland of of Cumbria, the bluish tufts of blue hold a particular fascination for southern England, the coastal moor-grass are prominent in limestone people. Of the rarer species, many headlands of the north Wales coast pastures. are confined to the southern, and the limestone gorges, hills and warmer, drier areas of England. crags of the Mendips in Somerset. Examples include the early spider-orchid, whose flowers strongly Lowland calcareous grasslands have resemble the body of a large fat considerable historical value. spider and man orchid, so-named as Early spider orchid. Photograph - Stephen Davis. Prehistoric burial mounds, stone each greenish-yellow flower circles, hill-figures and Iron Age hill resembles a small human figure with the Derbyshire Dales. This orchid forts are a particular feature of chalk head, arms and legs. An exception to occurs in limestone grassland, but downland and illustrate the antiquity the generally southern distribution is can also be found on rocky slopes, of man’s association with the landscape dark-red helleborine, whose screes and in the crevices (grikes) of and its wildlife. southernmost locality in the UK is limestone pavements. Parsonage Down, Wiltshire. Photograph - Stephen Davis. 4 5 are also important lichen habitats. Lowland calcareous grassland is an important habitat for a variety of birds, insects and snails. Ground-nesting birds such as skylark, meadow pipit and lapwing are declining in number but are still relatively widespread. Rare gems include the stone curlew and quail, two of the UK’s most threatened species. The stone curlew’s plaintive cries can sometimes be heard during Perennial flax. Photograph - Peter Wakely. spring and summer in its open The quail is a small partridge-like country strongholds in the East gamebird which migrates to the Anglian Breckland and on Salisbury UK in spring, and nests in dense, Plain. They nest on sparsely tall herbage in open countryside. vegetated and bare stony ground, It is an elusive bird which is rarely and search for earthworms, woodlice seen but its distinctive call can and beetles on chalk grassland and occasionally be heard on calcareous on nearby farmland. grassland in Wiltshire and Dorset. Pasqueflower. Photograph - Stephen Davis. Pasqueflower. Other scarce plants include the dykes or banks on the chalk. blue-flowered perennial flax which Patches, tufts and carpets of different can be found mainly in eastern types of mosses can sometimes be England from County Durham south conspicuous amongst the grasses and to Cambridgeshire, hoary rock-rose herbs in lowland calcareous which has strongholds on the grasslands. coastal limestones of the Gower and north Wales, and the showy Drier, sparsely-vegetated calcareous purple-flowered pasqueflower grasslands on thin soils may support a occurring in central and eastern variety of lichens, notably species of England. Legend has it that the Cladonia whose intricately-branched pasqueflower sprang from the blood tufts resemble miniature trees. The of Danes on account of its name Cladonia comes from the Greek association with ancient defensive for a twig. Chalk pebbles and flints Stone curlew settling on nest. Photograph - Roger Wilmshurst/FLPA. 6 7 Kestrels may be seen hovering over Many typical calcareous grassland grassland searching for voles and other plants support specific plant-feeding small mammals. One may be fortunate beetles and their leaf rosettes provide to glimpse a hobby (a small falcon) essential cover for ground beetles and hawking for insects over downland on ground bugs. A variety of grasshoppers a summer’s evening in southern and crickets live in lowland calcareous England. These grasslands appear grassland. On the steep chalk and Cistus forester moth. Photograph - Roger Key. devoid of life in winter but a hunting limestone slopes in southern England hen harrier or short-eared owl hint at in July one may be lucky enough can support a rich snail fauna, the presence of voles, mice and shrews to find the uncommon rufous particularly species which are hidden amongst the grass. grasshopper. This reddish-brown able to withstand dry conditions and grasshopper has distinctive high temperatures. For example the Lowland calcareous grassland white-tipped, club-shaped antennae, round-mouthed snail lives only on Common kestrel. Photograph - J Hawkins/FLPA. supports a tremendous variety of and likes to sun itself on low bushes. limestone and chalk habitats where insects and other invertebrates. Some of our scarcer butterflies, such as Short-grazed calcareous grassland it burrows into the loose soil. On a sunny summer’s day, one may the adonis blue, Duke of Burgundy, encounter a multitude of butterflies and northern brown argus, are found and hear the hum of foraging bees in calcareous grassland. The caterpillars and the singing of grasshoppers and of these species feed on plants which crickets. are typical of lime-rich soils, namely horseshoe vetch, cowslip and common rock-rose. As well as butterflies, a wide range of moths live on calcareous grassland. The day-flying cistus forester, found at scattered localities in England and Wales may sometimes be seen feeding on the flowers of wild thyme and common rock-rose in June and early July. Plant-feeding insects are abundant in calcareous grassland and include a rich array of beetles, particularly weevils and leaf beetles. Adonis blue. Photograph - Stephen Davis. Rufous grasshopper. Photograph - Martin Wendler/NHPA.
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