Barton Gravel Pit
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This small, former gravel pit now provides a safe haven for arable weeds - our most threatened group of wild flowers |
Once common in our cornfields, modern pesticides have all but eradicated the wild flowers of cultivation in an attempt to 'clean up' crops. This former quarry may be small but it is full of wildlife, an oasis for many plants that were once common along field edges throughout the county.
The floor of the pit has been filled in to raise the level to that of the surrounding fields. It is ploughed annually to mimic the conditions of traditional farming, but no cereal crops are grown, or fertilisers used. This disturbance encourages annual plants to thrive including Venus's-looking-glass, knotted hedge-parsley and various species of poppy. Ground pine keeps a precarious grip on the margins of the pit.
The chalk grassland of the undisturbed areas are a blaze of colour in late summer with knapweed and scabious attracting insects to feed on their nectar. The rare great pignut also grows here. Mature beech trees provide the right conditions for the white helleborine orchid to survive.
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Plants: White helleborine, cowslip, field madder, knotted hedge-parsley |
Plants: Venus's-looking-glass, poppies, great pignut, clustered bellflower, harebell, viper's bugloss, long-stalked cranesbill |
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