A SEVEN-ACRE wildflower meadow has attracted bird and wildlife enthusiasts who have “expressed great interest” in its role in the local ecosystem.
The meadow, at Papple Steading, between Whittingehame and Garvald, has been blooming with seasonal wildflowers, including yarrow and yellow rattle, for the last three years.
George Mackintosh, director of Papple Steading, said the flowers were sewn in an area which was formerly used as farmland.
He told the Courier: “For about 10 years the land was used as farmland for growing crops and other materials.
“When we bought it we thought it would be a good idea to sew some Scottish wildflowers in the area, and now we have seen them bloom for the past three years.”
Paths through the meadow enable visitors to walk amongst the flowers in what George believed was the biggest wildflower meadow in the Lothians.
He said: “It is in a really nice location and we have seen a lot of people come and enjoy the flowers.
“We did some research and I don’t think there is anything like this in East Lothian.
“There is one in West Lothian but it is smaller than ours and not publicly accessible.
“We had an event for Scotland’s Gardens Scheme and had about 500 people come along and they all enjoyed the flowers.”
George said the flowers had attracted visitors from both the Scottish Ornithologists’ Club and the Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland (BSBI).
He said: “We have seen a number of birds come to the meadow, which the Scottish Ornithologists’ Club enjoyed watching, and also a great number of butterflies, moths and bees.
“These are all essential for pollination and Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland expressed a great interest in seeing how our meadow was helping the ecosystem.
“Anything we can do to help the ecosystem in Scotland is something we want to do and we are delighted this is doing so.”
Marion Moir, BSBI recorder for East Lothian, said: “We were interested to see how the meadow had developed and whether it had been invaded by dominant species such as broad-leaved dock and hogweed.
“We could see a lovely spread of rusty brown being the common bent (Agrostis capillaris), blue specks of tufted vetch (Vicia cracca), dark seed heads of ribwort plantain (Plantago lanceolata) and white heads of ox-eye daisy (Leucanthemum vulgare). We were very pleased to see lots of yellow rattle (Rhinanthus minor), which is very important to subdue the tall grasses.
“The dominant species had only encroached on a damp corner and in a very small quantity.
“Our picnic lunch was taken in the middle of the meadow and so we got the full effect of hearing the insects buzzing amongst the flowers.”
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