Yorkshire Dales nature recovery project at Ingleborough heralds milestone with rare wildflowers

Ingleborough’s flat expanses of limestone with deep cracks along natural joints known as grykes is among the country’s most plant-rich habitats. It has been estimated the mountain is already home to a third of the UK's plant species.

While there are about 2,700 hectares of limestone pavement nationwide, a third of this in the Yorkshire Dales, an area which serves as a refuge for around 20 rare species. it is the only place in the world where the Yorkshire sandwort are found.

The programme and aims to reconnect and restore patches of limestone pavement and grassland to protect rare species, such as sandwort and bird’s-eye primrose, which remain in the Ingleborough area alongside wildlife such as red squirrels, black grouse, cuckoos and curlews.

As part of the scheme, hardy cattle, which are content to chew rank grasses, have been introduced to stop wildflowers from being out-competed while creating a range of different grass heights that are ideal for ground nesting birds and insects.

The drive to conserve spiked speedwell, or veronica spicata, is central to the nature restoration scheme. A clump-forming perennial featuring long spikes of intense, star-shaped blue flowers, it provides nectar and pollen for bees and the many other types of pollinating insects.

Conservation efforts were launched after a small but significant cluster of the plant was found clinging to an exposed cliff ledge high on the Ingleborough massif.

Ecologists said while the rare flowers were considered safe from grazing sheep, they identified them as “extremely vulnerable” as a small, isolated population. However, due to its rarity, spiked speedwell has Schedule 8 protected status, meaning its seeds could only be collected with a special Natural England licence.

After being collected from the ledge last year some of the seeds were sent to Kew Gardens’ Millenium Seedbank, and about 600 spiked speedwell plants were germinated, grown and potted on in a dedicated upland plant nursery in the foothills of Ingleborough.

Nearly 80 spiked speedwells were then planted on the Yorkshire Dales second highest mountain, where the conservation programme aims to protect and restore a host of other wildflowers and create a mosaic of habitats.

To bolster the spiked speedwell population, he Wild Ingleborough team is set to to plant out more of the plants alongside other species across Yorkshire Wildlife Trust’s reserves in the area and Natural England’s Ingleborough National Nature Reserve this year. Other species recently cultivated in the nursery include the hardy bloody cranesbill, which has vivid magenta-pink flowers and globeflowers, which has citrus yellow globe-shaped blooms and would have once been a common sight across the Dales but is now rare.

To address habitat loss and disease leading to a large decline in juniper, the project is propagating it and planting it out in favourable locations. The nursery has also seen the cultivation of a variety of montane willows, which have declined due to land management.

The team of volunteers has potted more than 4,500 seedlings and is optimistic other rare flora, such as purple saxifrage, baneberry, grass-of-parnassus and roseroot will bloom later this year.

Referring to the spiked speedwell success, Dr Thom said: “Loss of habitat and a changing climate makes some species particularly vulnerable, and it was significant to be able to collect the seeds from this beautiful rare flower, which has until this point been so isolated at Ingleborough that we were in danger of losing it altogether. “We’ve had amazing support from volunteers, other environmental organisations and Yorkshire businesses, it’s been a fantastic year for Ingleborough’s wildflowers and we’re looking forward to seeing what spring brings – always late in this area of the Dales - but expect colour, more diversity and a growing carpet of wildflowers.”

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