Rare Flora and Fauna Discoveries at Aylestone Meadows
Posted 11th November 2011
Following the welcome decision earlier this year by Leicester City Councillors to reject plans to put football pitches on part of the Aylestone Meadows Local Nature Reserve we have been working with the Council and local people to protect and enhance the site.
The first stage of this work was an extensive survey of the Local Wildlife Site areas of Aylestone Meadows, mainly looking at habitats and plants. A full report of the survey results will be published later this year.
We have discovered a unique willow at Aylestone Meadows, which is a cross between goat willow (sallow), grey willow, purple willow and osier. This is a new record, not just for Leicestershire but for the whole of the British Isles. The quadruple hybrid Salix caprea x cinerea subspecies oleifolia x purpurea x viminalis - also known as Salix x taylorii Rech.f. was confirmed by a national expert on willows.
Aylestone Meadows supports a number of rare wetland and grassland species – particularly in the flood meadows that are grazed by Longhorn cattle. These include slender spike-rush Eleocharis uniglumis , which has not been found in Leicestershire and Rutland since 1800 and is usually a coastal plant of salt-marshes; Tubular water-dropwort Oenanthe fistulosa a rapidly declining species; and marsh arrow-grass Triglochin palustris. Common meadow rue Thalictrum flavum is frequent throughout the reserve while aquatic species such as grass-wrack Pondweed Potamogeton compressus have been recorded in the canal.
Numerous signs of otters have been found along much of the River Soar and Grand Union Canal, indicating high activity and a healthy population here. Moth surveys this year have revealed a number of locally rare and uncommon species such as the blackneck and the beautiful hook-tip.These initial visits have recorded over 170 different species associated with a range of habitats including damp pasture, wetland and woodland. Fauna will be surveyed in more detail in future by local naturalists and all the surveys will inform future management of the nature reserve and adjacent areas.
"The surveys have confirmed that Aylestone Meadows and the associated River Soar is undoubtedly the best and most extensive area for wildlife in Leicester and indeed one of the most important wildlife corridors in Leicestershire and Rutland," said Neill Talbot, Senior Conservation Officer at the Trust.
The Wildlife Trusts locally and nationally are championing an initiative called Living Landscapes. Aylestone Meadows is part of the Soar and Wreake floodplain Living Landscape area, which Leicestershire and Rutland Wildlife Trust have been involved in for many years and is the most successful of our local Living Landscape schemes. To date we have surveyed the floodplain from Sharnford in the south to Lockington in the north; provided advice to numerous landowners; carried out extensive habitat restoration work; and bought 333 acres of land on the Soar floodplain in the last seven years. Our goal here is to enable the floodplain to function more naturally, which has huge benefits for nature and for people. Aylestone Meadows is a good example of how land should be managed to help wildlife and people by linking areas together, rather than causing fragmentation by developing on them.
The Trust is involved in other Living Landscape areas throughout Leicestershire and Rutland – click here to see further details and download a copy of the Trust's leaflet covering the Soar Valley Living Landscape scheme.
Photograph: Longhorn cattle at Aylestone Meadows (Neill Talbot/LRWT).
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