🌿 Finding a new pair of eyes!

Each June we take a look closely at the park's meadows to see what plant species we have growing there, and our data helps to monitor the health of the meadows year on year, to see what changes over time.

There is a lot of data gathered from location points on the Picnic Meadow alone, and our final group were still collecting survey data during the last day of June, just before hay-raking season began.

Who conducts the surveys?

We couldn't gather this wide range of data without the support of willing volunteer groups who work alongside our park staff. It takes many sets of eyes to identify and record the huge number of species found in what can look just like a grassy meadow at first glance.

Wonderful volunteers from all sorts of local and national businesses come and support us through corporate volunteering days. This June we welcomed enthusiastic groups of staff from Sinclair International, Aviva, and Birketts Law.

a group of four volunteers looking at the meadow closely to identify and record plant species

What happens during a plant survey?

1. This year we have looked closely at our large Picnic Meadow in particular. We mapped out 45 set locations to survey, all in a grid layout.

   
   

   

   
   

2. On site, we split the larger volunteering group into sub groups of three or four for each session, with each group finding their sample area using a pre-chosen What3words location tag.

   
   

3. Then we use marking flags and a measuring tape to plot out a 2x2m square area at that location. That is the area we then closely look at to identify the species within that marked zone.

   
   

4. We don't need to be plant experts to do this and we don't need to pick any plants either. We identify the species using a combination of illustrated pull-out charts and a clever free app called Flora Incognita where you take photos of the plant and it identifies it for you. Very handy! There were some plants which appeared to be like dandelions at first glance, but they were not, so it was an educational experience for all involved.

   
   

5. Thankfully, the individual plants do not need to be counted, as sometimes there can be huge numbers of one species present! We record a Domin score using a key which states a number relating to the percentage of the square covered by that species:

   
   

   91 - 100% coverage is recorded as Domin 10

   76 - 90% is recorded as Domin 9

   51 - 75% is recorded as Domin 8

   34 - 50% is recorded as Domin 7

   26 - 33% is recorded as Domin 6

   11 - 25% is recorded as Domin 5

   4 - 10% is recorded as Domin 4

   <4% with many individuals is Domin 3

   <4% with several individuals is Domin 2

   <4% with few (or one) individual is Domin 1

   
   

   This system is named after Czech botanist Karel Domin, who developed the Domin Scale in 1927. It is a cover-abundance scale used in ecology studies to estimate how much space a specific plant species covers in a designated area. In our case, this is a two by two metre square area each time.

   
   

6. The collected data is all put into a spreadsheet, analysed and compared with previous results. With 45 squares worth of data, that takes a while to process and analyse.

What did the results show?

This year's most abundant species found were Yorkshire fog (1st image and foreground of second image) and ribwort plantain (3rd image), as well as plenty of rough meadow grass. These were found in almost every sample square across the whole meadow.

In the last few years of surveying, 129 individual species have been identified in our meadows, with around 50 new species listings this year alone! We even identified a couple of tiny oak saplings in some of our survey squares.

In previous years, we have been lucky enough to find a few individual bee orchids and pyramidal orchids, but sadly there was no sign of any in the Picnic Meadow this time. Do let us know if you spot any of them elsewhere in the park.

I'll finish with a quote from one of our Aviva volunteers who supported this survey this year, as well as inspiring the blog title. After learning so much from the activity, she said:

I feel like I have a new pair of eyes!

She had never stopped to notice just how diverse apparent 'grass' can be. So next time when you're wandering through one of our meadows, why not take a moment to stop and notice the huge range of species that make our grassy areas so diverse and beautiful.

Feel the texture of the leaves, notice how many different colours you can see, and feel the tickly touch of the delicate tall grasses. You might even spot some stunning insects too! 🦋🐞🪰🦗🕷️🐝🐛