Ten of us met Gerry Firkins, a member of the Sorby Natural History Society, in the Nature Park lay-by on a lovely still evening to have a look at the plants in the meadow and also other areas of the Nature Park. Gerry is a specialist in identifying grasses, and many grasses were just at their best, so we learnt quite a few names. The names themselves are fascinating; Cocksfoot, Foxtail, Crested Dog’s-tail, Yorkshire Fog, Timothy, and many more. There were not many flowers out in the meadow, as it was rather early in the season for this meadow, but there was plenty to look at and identify elsewhere. We have a good amount of Yellow Rattle in the orchard, but despite many attempts to establish it in the large meadow area we have not been successful yet. Partly because of this, the grass is very dominant and the flower species tend to struggle.
We are grateful to Gerry for a most interesting evening and hope that we might be able to repeat the survey another year, maybe in late July/ August.