Grassland Management

 

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1
Pasque Flower

 

The Parish retains some areas of species-rich grassland and it is important to the survival of these remnants that they are managed in a way that is beneficial to their constituent species. This relates to the road verges, as well as to those fields in private ownership. There is a need to document the most species-rich and ecologically sensitive areas of grassland within the Parish and to develop suitable management protocols for them. In the case of the road verges of Fish Hill. This relates to protecting the orchid flora during essential highway works. In the case of many pastures, this may require continuation of certain management regimes or the change to more ecologically appropriate treatment on a case by case basis.

Generally there is a need to prevent and reduce the effects of previous, nutrient enrichment and to minimise the use of herbicides. Some of the more species-poor grasslands may be ecologically enhanced through the implementation of suitable grazing or hay-cutting cycles.

 A notable record from The Botany of Worcestershire by Amphlett and Rea (1909) is for the poetically named, chocolate-wrapper-purple, pasqueflower (Pulsatilla vulgaris) (1). 

 ‘One record only for Worcestershire... Although given by Mr Lees in his table of Worcestershire plants, the locality he quotes is Snowshill, which is a parish adjoining Broadway, but in Gloucestershire, and there is possibly no reason why the plant should not also occur in Worcestershire.’

 Wells, (in Stewart et alia , 1994) points out that this is a long-lived perennial herb of grazed and un-grazed grasslands, confined in England to relatively shallow calcareous soils. Most colonies occur on steep south to south-west facing slopes on the escarpment of the chalk or Jurassic limestone or in similar grassland in old quarries and on ancient earthworks. At sites where P. vulgaris is common, the grassland is characteristically rich in species.

 Of importance to the Parish of Broadway is a further comment by Stewart et alia. viz. ‘colonisation of new sites is unknown, partly because of lack of a dispersal mechanism but, more importantly, because of the combination of special requirements for germination and establishment. P. vulgaris has been lost from many of its former localities, mainly because of habitat destruction’ (Wells 1968).

 One of the sites where the pasqueflower still occurs in Gloucestershire is now a nature reserve. What an achievement it would be for Broadway if the pasqueflower were to occur on its scarp meadows. Complexities relating to seed dispersal, germination and establishment can be overcome. It is suggested that the yardstick by which appropriate management of Broadway’s grasslands may be measured is the re-establishment of this scarce species within them.

 Records of pasqueflower from the vicinity of Snowshill parish are noted in Riddelsdell et alia (1948), wherein it is stated the species is ‘chiefly found within the triangle having Chipping Campden at its apex, Fairford and Dursely at its S.E. and S.W. angles respectively’.

Bishop (2000) reported it from ‘Snowshill, Hornsleasow, rough grassland, locally frequent, 1982 and subsequently’.  Holland et alia (1986) state that ‘small colonies still remain at Hornsleasow Rough…’   How close…how close! It might be suggested that Broadway can do better.

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