Nevertheless, nature is resilient and the Parish retains areas of species richness which by accident or design, have either escaped the ravages of human endeavour or have profited from them.
Coneygree Lane is undoubtedly one of the jewels in the Parish’s botanical tiara retaining, as it does, a linear strip of species-rich ancient semi-natural woodland flora which easily compares with some of the best in the Cotswolds. The presence of herb paris (Paris quadrifolia) supports this view.
Marren (1990) points out that the rather scarce herb paris is a good (but not quite infallible) indicator of ancient woodland in Britain. In this country it is a slow coloniser, yet in the Pyrenees it grows in recent scrub by riversides and other pockets of rich moist soil. It evidently has some means of dispersal abroad which is lacking in Britain. Marren suggests that, as Jonathan Spencer speculates, one of its agents is the wild boar, which feeds like a vacuum cleaner on edible matter on and in the woodland floor, and travels great distances. Perhaps the British herb paris lost its main long-distance vector when the boar became extinct. Certainly its distribution suggests that it was more common formerly (Marren 1990).
The presence of: bluebell (Hyacinthoides non-scripta), common twayblade (Listera ovata), dog’s mercury (Mercurialis perennis), early purple orchid (Orchis mascula), goldilocks (Ranunculus auricomus), lesser celandine (Ranuculus ficaria), lords-and- ladies (Arum maculatum), moschatel (Adoxa moscatellina), pendulous sedge (Carex pendula), primrose (Primula vulgaris), ramsons (Allium ursinum) , red campion (Silene dioica), sanicle (Sanicula europaea), Solomon’s seal (Polygonatum sp.), wood anemone (Anemone nemorosa), wood meadow grass (Poa sylvestris), wood melick (Melica uniflora), wood sedge (Carex sylvatica) and yellow archangel (Lamiastrum galeobdolon) add to the site’s richness and support its recognition for nature conservation.
Opposite-leaved golden saxifrage (Chrysosplenium oppositifolium) occurs in the small stream which runs down the Snowshill roadside from Coneygree Lane towards the village, to date, the only known site for this species in the parish.
Other remnants of ancient woodland flora occur to the north of the bypass as it zig-zags its way up Fish Hill and these are of value in supporting the Parish’s resource of beech hangar with characteristic species such as common twayblade (Listera ovata) and woodland mosses including bud-headed groove-moss (Aulacomnium androgynum), dotted thyme-moss (Rhizomnium punctatum) and chalk comb-moss (Ctenidium molluscum).
Consideration of the Parish’s woodland resource must include Broadway Wood which forms a pleasant border with Gloucestershire. Broadway Wood includes botanical elements rarely seen elsewhere in the parish such as bracken (Pteridium aquilinum), raspberry (Rubus idaeus) and valerian (Valeriana officinalis). Though planted with exotic tree species including Douglas fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii) and redwood (Sequoia sempervirens), Broadway Wood and its associated compartments retain a broad-leaved canopy with beech (Fagus sylvatica), pedunculate oak (Quercus robur) and ash (Fraxinus excelsior) and a native woodland flora worthy of further investigation (if only there were more rights of way!).
Legend has it (Turner, 1993) that when the dissolution of the abbey at Evesham took place in 1539, Abbot Clement Lichfield took the silver bells from the tower and hid them deep in the heart of the beech woods at Broadway’s Middle Hill.
Aside from woodlands, the Parish supports Worcestershire’s principal resource of limestone grassland (in shares with Bredon Hill) and a respectable list of pasture and woodland orchid species including bee orchid (Ophrys apifera), pyramidal orchid (Anacamptis pyramidalis), common spotted orchid (Dactlylorhiza fuchsii), common twayblade (Listera ovata), early purple orchid (Orchis mascula) and broad-leaved helleborine (Epipactis helleborine). A notable colony of more than 100 plants of the latter, August-flowering, species occurs in poplar plantation beside the access track from the Snowshill Road to Kite’s Nest.
The creation of the new Broadway bypass has brought some other interesting botanical elements to the fore, including dropwort (Filipendula vulgaris) which may have been introduced to the parish in a wildflower seed mixture but was reported from Broadway early last century (Amphlett and Rea, 1909) and is present where the bypass crosses the Honeybourne railway line today.
Probably the species most noted by the visitor is the climbing wisteria (Wisteria sinensis) with its chains of purple flowers. This is not a native species at all but contributes significantly to the character of the village and, no doubt, lingers in the memories of many who have passed through.
