Being a Botanist

I first met my next guest poster on my many trips into Hathern, while delivering my youngest child to band practice at the band hut on Pasture Lane, and at many Hathern Band concerts. This wonderful post, from a retired engineer, covers everything wildflower - from Richard Pulteney to Andrew Bloxham, from our Lammas Meadows (a designated Coronation Meadow in 2012), to mistletoe, from the Hathern Wildlife Group to the RSPB and is accompanied by some stunning photos! Read on to find out more from Dave ...

Being a Botanist

Dave Neville

Greater Burnet

“Are you all right, can we help?” I’m lying on the ground and a passerby is concerned. I haven’t fallen over – I’m down there examining a plant. For my sins, I am an amateur botanist, and I’m sure most botanists have had an experience like this at some time.

I’ve been interested in plants since I was young. I grew up in the 1950s in a Northumbrian country village and we knew most of the names of wild flowers we came across while playing in the meadows. Added to that we were taught “Nature Study” at school which reinforced our knowledge. We were required to make pressed wild flower collections – something that would be frowned upon today. None of this seemed at all unusual at the time and we competed to have the largest collection – a bit like collecting Pokemon cards today. For the plants we didn’t know, we had the Observer’s Book of Wild Flowers as a reference [1]. Does anyone remember this? First published in 1937, it was pocket sized and at five shillings, was the only reference book within our pocket money budget. It was excellent, though frustrating in that only alternate pages were in colour which could be a challenge if the flower you were trying to identify was a line drawing. And of course, not all wild flowers were in there meaning we sometimes had to seek help from elsewhere.

Meadow Cranesbill

Knowledge of wild plants has gone downhill since then. The Plantlife charity has 15,000 members whereas the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds boasts 1.2 million, that says a lot. Botanists are few and far between. So too are the ancient hay meadows I played in when I was young. However, Loughborough has a marvellous ancient meadow – Loughborough Big Meadow. It is a Lammas meadow of which there are only 20 left in the country [2]. These meadows were divided into plots with each owner entitled to cut the hay from their plot. If they didn’t want the hay, it was put up for auction – this year was the 140th auction at Loughborough. After cutting, the grass was allowed to grow until Lammas Day (1 August) when the plot owners could allow their stock to graze on the whole meadow. 

Lammas Meadow to the left of the River Soar, looking over the road bridge on Meadow Lane. Taken 1 August 2023

Lammas Meadow on 1 August 2023, looking towards the hill at Stanford-on-Soar

Lammas Meadow from Meadow Lane looking towards Dishley, taken 1 August 2023

Cows grazing on the Lammas Meadow, looking towards Dishley, taken 19 August 2020

The Big Meadow is a Site of Special Scientific Interest, managed by Leicestershire and Rutland Wildlife Trust (LRWT). In 1965 there were 20 plot owners, but over the years the Trust has bought up more land so that today there are only six. The meadow is home to a range of interesting plants including the rare narrow-leaved water-dropwort at its only site in Leicestershire, first recorded there in 1830 by Rev. Andrew Bloxam [3]. He was for many years Rector of Twycross and his arrival gave considerable impetus to the study of botany in Leicestershire.

Narrow-leaved water-dropwort

Before Andrew Bloxam there was Richard Pulteney (1730-1801) [4], who can justly be described as the father of Leicestershire botany. He was born in Mountsorrel and educated in Loughborough. At the age of 15 he was apprenticed to a Loughborough apothecary. While still a young man, between 1747 and 1752, he produced three manuscripts describing over 600 plants in the county, many of which have now been lost. He corresponded with prominent botanists of the time such as George Deering and John Blackstone and his manuscripts provide clues to early landscape features in the county before the enclosure of common land and subsequent changes in agriculture.

Common Knapweed

Mistletoe was first recorded in Leicestershire by Richard Pulteney, though no doubt it had been around long before that. These days it can be found all over town. Mistletoe is what’s called a hemiparasite – it has chlorophyll so can produce its own food, but it relies on its host tree for water, nutrients and support. It is also unusual in that it is dioecious, meaning that it has separate male and female plants, and only the female plants produce berries.

Mistletoe

When I first became interested in Loughborough’s mistletoe, there was a theory that it emanated from old orchards in Thorpe Acre. However, looking at past records and talking to longtime residents, it appears there was some around, but it had expanded greatly in the last thirty years. Moreover, this wasn’t just a Loughborough phenomenon. Studies in other parts of the country have shown similar results. Why should this be?  It appears that it is linked to the rise in the number of overwintering blackcaps. The blackcap is a type of warbler we see during the summer, however in the last thirty years many are preferring Britain to their normal winter home in Africa because of our milder winters and available food such as mistletoe berries. Blackcaps love them; they eat the flesh and then wipe the sticky seed onto tree trunks. Thrushes and other birds eat the whole berry then deposit the seeds with their droppings, the blackcap way means that mistletoe gets around faster.

The Hathern Wildlife Group has been recording the locations of trees with mistletoe in Loughborough and beyond for the last two years. This isn’t the easiest of tasks as it’s really only possible to spot mistletoe when the trees aren’t in leaf. However, that’s the more difficult time for identifying tree species so mistletoe recording, while mostly in the winter, also sometimes needs summer visits to confirm the tree species. There’s another complication. As mistletoe has separate male and female plants, determining which is which is not an easy task if the plant has no berries. Close inspection is needed, which is usually difficult unless you do a bit of climbing. So, a plant without berries could be male, or it could be female which has been stripped of berries by the blackcaps and their pals. This means that recording is best done early in the winter before berries disappear.

Well over 100 trees with mistletoe have been recorded so far in Loughborough, Hathern and Shepshed and a survey of the trees on the university campus is planned for this winter.  So, instead of lying on the ground, no doubt I’ll now have concerned passersby trying to get me down from a tree. It’s fun being a botanist!

The author would like to thank Chris Hill, Conservation Officer with the Leicestershire and Rutland Wildlife Trust for the information about Loughborough Big Meadow.

Dave Neville, left, Chris Hill of the Leicestershire and Rutland Wildlife Trust, right

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Biography

Dave Neville is a retired professional engineer who moved to Loughborough in 1993. Now living in Hathern, Dave was a parish councillor for many years and is now involved in conservation projects as part of the Hathern Wildlife Group.

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Editor's Notes

[1] Oh yes, I remember pressing wild flowers! I've still got the foolscap ring binder full of what are now completely unrecognisable straw-coloured plants! I also thought I used to use the Observer's Books, but when I came to look at my collection I seemed to be missing the one on wild flowers, but I do remember using the Collins book!

A pressed flower from Editor's collection

[2] I touched upon Loughborough's Lammas Meadow in a post from one of my lockdown walks, and there is also an entry in 'A-Z of Loughborough'. Incidentally, there is a newish road in Hathern, off the Shepshed Road, which is called Lammas Drive - I wonder why ...?

[3] The Reverend Andrew Bloxham contributed the botanical information to Thomas Rossell Potter's 'The History and Antiquities of Charnwood Forest'

Title page

[4] Richard Pulteney is mentioned in my blogpost about the Loughborough Grammar School, and wildflowers he noted were found in the field opposite what is now the Bull-in-the-Hollow. This field is now covered in houses. Pulteney is also an entry in 'A-Z of Loughborough'.

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Posted by lynneaboutloughborough

With apologies for typos which are all mine!

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