The flowering plants of the reserves in the Limestone Ecology Group’s area are of great conservation importance. The once widespread habitat of herb-rich sheep-grazed limestone pasture has been drastically reduced over the past 60 years through the application of herbicides, fertilizers and the ploughing up of old grasslands. Ironically it is in old quarries where many of our limestone herbaceous plants have found refuge. Stonepit Quarry and the calcining banks on the Ring Haw site were only abandoned in the 1970’s, yet have a very rich flora. The Trust’s problem is how to maintain and enhance this richness through suitable management.
The first task is to find out what is present. As a starting point, a species list has been made of the flowering plants occurring in each of the main sectors of the Sulehay complex ie East Field, Old Sulehay Forest, Stonepit/Sulehay Quarry, Ring Haw Wood, Ring Haw Grasslands and Nassington Bottom Mires (see accompanying map). A list has also been started for Wansford Pasture to compare with the existing surveys made in the 1980s when the site was acquired. Work has not yet started on an updated plant list for the Southorpe reserves. Collyweston Quarry has been tackled in a different way through the Hepburn Survey, which will be reported on separately by the Trust when the data have been analysed.
To view a map of the Old Sulehay Nature Reserve areas covered by this report, click here.
A total of 262 flowering plant species has been recorded so far, during 2002 and 2003, including all the Sulehay reserve and Wansford Pasture. The spreadsheet shows the occurrence of these species across the seven parts of the reserve referred to above. A ‘1’ indicates that the species has been recorded in that sector. Sulehay Quarry and Ring Haw Grasslands had 137 and 136 species respectively, and Old Sulehay Forest 122. In Wansford Pasture 79 species have been found, though this was based on just two visits in 2003. The spreadsheet shows each species’ classification according to Gent and Wilson1 as Very Common, Common, Frequent, Occasional, Rare and Very Rare. The table at the foot of the spreadsheet shows how many species classified as uncommon (ie occasional, rare or very rare) were recorded in each sector. East Field had 5 uncommon species, Old Sulehay, 34, Sulehay Quarry 38, Ring Haw Grasslands 39, Nassington Bottom Mires 4 and Wansford Pasture 11.
To view the complete species list, click here.
This is somewhat subjective: it should include some species which are not classified as uncommon, but which do have a significant presence on the site eg wood anemone and cowslip. The following is a list of suggestions. Species which seem to occur only in the compartment of the reserve in question are in italics. Species underlined have low and perhaps vulnerable populations.
Musk mallow, hairy violet.
Old Sulehay.
Toothwort, wood spurge, greater butterfly orchid, common twayblade, wild service tree, spurge laurel, clustered bellflower, wood anemone, ramsons, and ancient coppice stools, especially small leaved lime, pignut.
Stonepit Quarry.
Hound’ tongue, viper’s bugloss, carline thistle, dwarf thistle, woolley thistle, blue fleabane, common cudweed, ploughman’s spikenard, common restharrow (spiny restharrow not confirmed), salad burnet, yellow wort, lesser centaury, basil thyme, bee orchid, buck’s-horn plantain, small flowered buttercup, dark mullein, twiggy (slender) mullein, wild strawberry, deadly nightshade, wild parsnip, hairy violet.
Greater burdock, ramsons.
Viper’s Bugloss, hound’s tongue, clustered bellflower, harebell, woolley thistle, common cudweed, ploughman’s spikenard, small scabious, wild liquorice, grass vetchling, yellow wort, lesser centaury, small flowered cranesbill, basil thyme, pyramidal orchid, common spotted orchid, bee orchid, lesser broomrape, hoary plantain, cowslip, stinking hellebore, wild strawberry, rock rose, deadly nightshade, wild parsnip, hairy violet.
Hemp agrimony, fleabane, common spotted orchid.
Ragged robin, dwarf thistle, fleabane, distant sedge, false fox sedge, blunt flowered rush, southern marsh orchid, common spotted orchid, common twayblade, fiddle dock, fen bedstraw.
Many of the uncommon and vulnerable species are characteristic of short-cropped turf where there is little competition from more vigorous species. Rabbits play a key role in maintaining this habitat, but are nevertheless losing against the advance of tall grasses and scrub. Active management is essential to keep the existing grassland area intact. The calcining banks currently show a good mixture of sward heights, but there is increasing domination from grasses such as Calamagrostis and Brachypodium and in places from wild liquorice. Some species are confined to small areas and could easily be lost, for example harebell (which grows opposite the cow paddock), stinking hellebore, grass vetchling (which was not found in 2003), lesser broomrape (just a few flower spikes found), rock rose (one small patch in the western corner of the calcining banks), lesser centaury (which is largely confined to the compacted ground on old vehicle tracks) and small flowered cranesbill (found only on the railway bridge). Mapping of these species is now needed to ensure that they are taken care of as management work proceeds.
Apart from these scarce plants we should also keep in mind the spectacular effects of some of the commoner species and try to ensure that they are conserved. Notable concentrations occur of wood anemone (Sulehay Forest), cowslip (calcining banks of Ring Haw Grasslands), common spotted orchid (200+ flower spikes on the bank by the old pheasant pen near the offices).
1. Gent, Gill and Wilson, Rob et al. 1995. The Flora of Northamptonshire and the Soke of Peterborough. Robert Wilson Designs.
