The Book of Vanishing Species by Beatrice Forshall

Author:Beatrice Forshall
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781526623652
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Published: 2022-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

SNAKE’S HEAD FRITILLARY

Fritillaria meleagris

Water meadow: flood water, collecting in dips, shows plants with a clarity that even air cannot render.

Early in April, in the water meadows of southern England, the green shoots of fritillaries push up through the grass and the chequered flowers form. From each thin, gently curving stem, three, four, perhaps six, long leaves reach out. The top of the stem bends with the curve of a shepherd’s crook; from this the head hangs to protect its pollen from rain. Closed, the flower is like a snake’s head; when open, it is like a lantern, the sun shining through the chequered reds, pinks and magentas of the petals as through stained glass.

Once pollinated, the flowers turn towards the sky, so that the seeds catch the wind. People used to say that they grow where the Romans trod. They reflect near-infrared and ultraviolet light, which the bumblebee sees. As it approaches, the movement and pattern of the flower further attract the bee, whose pollination protects the flower from mould. Once inside, the bee shakes the flower like a bell.

The fritillary’s genome is many times longer than our own. These flowers are threatened by housebuilding, ploughing, which uproots their bulbs, the draining of water meadows, and agrochemicals. They are now extinct in Belgium and the Czech Republic, but a few fields of them remain in other parts of Europe.

Meadows of all kinds are under threat. Before the tractor, they provided the renewable fuel that powered the farm: fodder for horses. Records show that meadows were almost always valued more highly than arable or pasture land.

A field can be empty: earth turned by the cold steel of the ploughshare, enclosed by barbed wire. A meadow is never empty, for it is not cultivated, only grazed or mown. Because of this, it is full of different plants, and where there is a variety and quantity of these, there is life. The timing of the haymaking is important: seeds must be allowed to mature; this also gives ground-nesting birds time to hatch.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.