Intensive farming threatens wildflowers

QUAINTLY named flowers like weasel’s snout and shepherd’s needle, which grow among farm crops, now account for one fifth of wild plants being targeted for protection, conservationists have announced.

A guide to more than 100 of Britain’s arable plants, published yesterday, says flowers that were once common are now rare sights because of increasingly intensive farming methods.

Those species most at risk in Scotland include shepherd’s needle, which is fast disappearing in East Lothian, pink dianthus, geranium and yellow globe flower. Other species, such as corncockle, are already considered to be extinct in Britain. Also threatened are common poppies, corn marigold and cornflower.

Arable Plants - a Field Guide, produced by the government conservation agency English Nature, but covering the whole of the UK, comes a year after a Scottish wildflower protection project reported more than 90 per cent of Britain’s grasslands supporting such plants had disappeared since the 1930s.

Wildflower experts said farmers were using increasing amounts of pesticides and other chemicals, cutting back hedges and filling in boggy areas where plants thrived.

These measures have been accompanied by the development of more vigorous crop varieties and a shift from spring-sown to autumn-sown crops, which have all spelled bad news for wildflowers.

Such moves have improved production and made the use of farm machines easier, but also decimated wildflowers.

This has also had a knock-on effect on bees, butterflies and birds further up the food chain.

However, increasing organic farming, and schemes such as the Scottish Wildflower Grasslands Initiative, are helping to give wildflowers a reprieve.

A spokeswoman for English Nature said of the threat to arable plants: "It seems almost perverse that, despite increases in the area of land under arable cultivation since the 1940s, these are the wild plants that have shown the greatest decline."

Douglas McKean, a British flora expert at the Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh, said: "These developments are promoting a monoculture - where there is a single plant species in fields.

"However, some farmers will be unaware of the effect this has on the wider environment."

Sir Martin Doughty, chairman of English Nature, said changes in farming had had far-reaching effects on wildflowers. Launching the guide at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, London, he said: "The changes in the way we have grown crops over the past 60 years have altered the picture of our countryside.

"We have seriously affected the whole diversity of our countryside; the plight of farmland birds has been well documented but arable plants may have fared just as badly, if not worse.

"We need to ensure that agri-environment schemes take these species into account."

Jane MacKintosh, an advisory officer for grasslands at Scottish Natural Heritage, said work to restore grassland was still at an experimental stage in Scotland.

She said techniques included re-seeding grasslands, improving grazing management and reducing chemical use.

The Scottish Executive last week announced a 10 million boost to its rural stewardship scheme, which provides grants to farmers for environmental protection projects.

George Lawrie, of NFU Scotland, said: "The financial difficulties over recent years have made this funding all the more important in ensuring farmers can maximise their contribution to the countryside."