Nettles and brambles ganging up on flowers

A “MARAUDING gang” of plants including brambles and nettles are increasingly taking over road verges and squeezing out wildflowers important for bees, conservationists have warned.

The “nitrogen guzzlers”, which also include cow parsley and creeping buttercup, thrive in nitrogen-rich soils caused in part by pollution from road traffic which settles on road verges, wildlife charity Plantlife said.

They are forcing out other wildlife-friendly and threatened species that prefer less rich soil, with the array of wildflowers on road verges shrinking by almost a fifth, analysis of trends since 1990 show.

Species such as red clover and lady’s bedstraw, which support high numbers of insects, have seen the most rapid declines.

And rare wildflowers such as fen ragwort and wood calamint are clinging on in just a handful of verges, their last remaining habitat.

The pollution from traffic, which sees 90% of nitrogen of car emissions deposited within 15m of the road edge, combines with poor management of road verges to create a “perfect storm” for wildflowers.

Plantlife is calling on councils to manage verges better for wildflowers and the wildlife they support, while keeping them safe for motorists. Changes could include cutting less and later in the year so flowers can set seed, allowing semi-parasitic plant yellow rattle to act as a natural lawnmower and not leaving cuttings on the verge where they increase the nutrient richness.

The “dirty dozen” plants increasing in both frequency and abundance are stinging nettle, bramble, rough meadow-grass, ash, ivy, hawthorn, cow parsley, Yorkshire fog, hazel, blackthorn, sycamore and creeping buttercup.

Plantlife’s Dr Trevor Dines said: “It’s playground thuggery... They literally shoulder these small plants aside and out-compete with them.”