Councils faulted as roadside verges destroyed

Agencies/London

Wildflower-rich roadside verges around the country are being destroyed by local councils mowing them when they are in full bloom, experts have warned.

The verges and hedgerows alongside roads are home to hundreds of species of flowering plants and provide food for wildlife ranging from bees to birds and mammals. But many of the country’s wildflower verges are being damaged by repeated mowing when plants are flowering, smothered by cuttings left in the aftermath or sprayed off with herbicides, plant charity Plantlife said.

The charity is calling for councils to manage the almost 600,000 acres of roadside verges around the country to help protect native flowers, and the pollinators and other wildlife that relies on them.

Road verges support as many as a thousand plant species across the country and are important for rare plant species such as long-leaved helleborine and bastard balm, which are among the 33 wayside flowers threatened with extinction.

The A30 and A38 roads in Devon and Cornwall alone support more than 1,000 acres of flower-rich grassland, with just one junction home to six orchid species including bee orchids and 1,100 greater butterfly orchids. Meanwhile, in Warwickshire, one road verge has the county’s largest population of pyramidal orchids and rockrose, as well as the regionally scarce brown argus butterfly.

The huge loss of meadows from the UK makes roadside verges and the habitat they create even more important, Plantlife said, with verges providing twice as much grassland as is left in the countryside.