Newly created rare wildflower meadows have bloomed for the first time this summer.
Swathes of white oxeye daises, bird’s-foot trefoil and bright blue viper’s bugloss have flowered along with meadow grasses, filling an area the size of 197 football pitches – 90 hectares. The fields, on the north Devon coast in England, have taken two years to establish from 1.3 tons seeds, as part of the National Trust’s largest ever wildflower grassland project.
Acting as wildflower seed donor sites, throughout the summer rangers have been joined by volunteers to collect seeds either with a brush harvester, seed vacuum or by hand. Every hectare of donor site harvested will provide enough seed to sow two more hectares of meadows, say organisers, allowing the ‘scaling up’ of grassland creation across the south-west.
