Yellow Rattle trial at Long Meadow will start this October
Enhancing the number and species of native wildflowers at Long Meadow is an important element of the overarching HIGS objective to increase biodiversity at our local green spaces. This remains a long-term objective for HIGS.
We are carrying out a small-scale trial at Long Meadow (on less than 4% of the meadow) using Yellow Rattle (Rhinanthus minor) to investigate its potential to speed up the field’s restoration as a wildflower-rich meadow.
Yellow Rattle, a native annual flower, has a reputation as the ‘meadow maker’ because, as a parasite on grasses, it can reduce the dominance of grass species over wildflowers.
The trial will consist of having twelve 6m by 6m plots randomly located throughout the meadow. This October each plot will be mown and then well scarified so that roughly 40% of each plot is bare ground readily available for seed germination. Six of the twelve plots will be sown with Yellow Rattle seed in late autumn and the remaining six will be left unsown as control plots. We will be monitoring all twelve plots and expect that the trial will run over a number of growing seasons before firm conclusions can be reached.
You may notice the plot markers and see the effects of the mowing and scarifying over the next few weeks but the visual impact should be short term and is of course affecting only a small fraction of the field. Next summer we will all be on the lookout for Yellow Rattle.
You can find more information about our management of the meadow here.
Photos of Yellow Rattle flowers and seed heads