Strawberry fields may not be forever, charity warns

WILD strawberries are in such steep decline that the only fruits left could soon be “those boxed in plastic in the supermarket aisles”, a wildlife charity has warned.

The “steady, quiet and under-reported decline” of meadows, with 97 per cent eradicated since the Thirties, is one of the biggest tragedies in the history of UK nature conservation, Plantlife said. As a result, a number of traditional meadow and other grassland flowers that were once widespread are now classed as “near threatened” in England, including harebell, common rockrose, quaking grass and ragged robin.

Steep and steady declines of wild strawberry, field scabious and devil’sbit scabious are particularly concerning because of the number of insect species that feed off the plants, the charity said. Dr Trevor Dines, a botanical specialist at Plantlife, said: “If more than 97 per cent of our woodland had been destroyed there’d be a national outcry. People tie themselves to trees

‘Nobody lies down amongst meadow buttercups in protest at the ploughing up of ancient meadows’

as the chainsaws arrive, but nobody lies down amongst meadow buttercups in protest at the ploughing up of ancient meadows.

“But the vanishing of our speciesrich grassland must be opposed and countered unless we are to slip into a thoroughly nature-depleted landscape where the wild things are lost, and where the only strawberries children know are those boxed in plastic in the supermarket aisles.” A healthy wildflower meadow can be home to as many as 140 species of flowers – from increasingly rare military, monkey and greater butterfly orchids to bird’s-foot trefoil, which provides food for 160 species of insect.

However, species-rich grassland, covers less than 1 per cent of UK land.

The wild strawberry is small, about 1cm across. The pips or seeds that form on its surface are not sunken into the fruit, but protrude.