Yorkshire Countrywomen’s Association

Friday, July 6th 2018

I combined this morning's usual trip to see the ponies with putting up some new interpretation boards detailing interesting facts and figures of lowland Heaths in the UK, including information regarding the continued maintenance work carried out by Lark and Taurus.

Meanwhile Colin was busy creating more Mink Rafts in the Workshop where I joined him before too long to continue painting and decorating.

On my travels I couldn't help but admire one of our most persecuted plants; like many other wildflowers, Ragwort is poisonous to animals. This poses a problem if it gets mixed into dry hay that is later fed to livestock. In fields however, livestock will avoid it in its green state, and it is in fact mildly poisonous.

One thing that is rarely mentioned is the benefit of Ragwort to nature as a great source of food for pollinator species, such as bees and butterflies (much the same as the equally persecuted Thistle). On top of this there is also the fact that Ragwort is the principle food source for the Cinnabar moth caterpillar (seen below). In the UK the exceptionally vibrant and wonderful Cinnabar moth has seen a dramatic decline of 83% in the last 35 years!

It's now safe to return to reading the blog after my mini rant on persecuted plants (sorry!), and just in time to make mention of our visit by the Yorkshire Countrywomen's Association who enjoyed a talk regarding the Reserve led by Steve, before an extended guided tour taking in all of the wonderful habitats that make up Foxglove.

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