Why Wildflower Meadows matter

A wildflower strip I created several years ago, now a thriving habitat to boost pollinator numbers. This can be recreated on a larger or smaller scale, never underestimate how helpful a small patch of wildflowers can be. 🌸 🐝

Why We Need Wildflowers 🐝

Over the last 50 years we have lost around 98% of our wildflower meadows, these natural sites were important wildlife rich habitats, teaming with biodiversity.

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Wildflowers provide important food for our native insects, not only nectar and pollen for bees, butterflies and moths but also caterpillars that feed on the plants.

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Insects may seem insignificant but actually have a huge impact on the world in which we live. Without insects we would lose most of our food.

fruits, vegetables and nuts all need to be pollinated before they will produce any crop.

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Once a significant feature of the British landscape, wildflowers are now becoming more and more scarce which in turn is having an impact on our native insect populations.

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Swathes of mown grass, huge fields of a single species, road verges sprayed in herbicide and hedges pulled up have all reduced the natural feeding, breeding and living areas of our native insect species. This in turn has a knock on effect, many of our favourite birds feed on insects, hedgehogs too are mainly insectivores as are bats.

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Ancient grasslands contain rare species of orchids, tiny wildflowers like milkwort, colourful fungi like wax caps and field ants.

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With only tiny pockets of land left, pollinators like bees need to fly further afield to get food, some species become isolated and windows for breeding opportunities become difficult

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