The Globeflower

The Globeflower, Trollius europaeus, Trollius coming from the German  Trollblume, meaning ‘round flower’, is a large member of the buttercup family and flowers from May to July, producing lemon- coloured, round-shaped flowers around 4cm in diameter on top of tall, slender stems.

It grows in damp soils such as can be found in meadows and along riverbanks and prefers alkali or limestone soils which are undisturbed. Once very common in the Northwest it has become quite rare, now only found in a handful of protected sites such as Bell Sykes wildflower meadows near Slaidburn in the Forest of Bowland.

Restoration of the species

Reasons for the Globeflower’s decline in the Northwest and across the wider British isles are numerous but the predominant factors are ‘improvement’ of agricultural land with fertilisers, overgrazing, drainage of hillside pastures and land-development, all problems that are proving hard to resolve when aiming to restore habitats fit for thriving populations of wildflowers.

At Bell Sykes work has been carried out in recent years by the Forest of Bowland A.O.N.B team and partners collecting and propagating Globeflower seeds and other wildflower seeds such as Hay Rattle as part of the Coronation Meadows project, which aims to preserve wildflower meadows which have been untouched since the queen’s coronation.

Propagation and pollination

The Globeflower is a self propagating plant, meaning it self-pollinates and spreads by division, but it is also pollinated by insects, though only those species tiny enough to get in between the flower’s sepals, this is another reason why it struggles in some areas as the loss of wildflowers and the field margins they used to grow in has also led to a decline in pollinating insects.

Its seeds ripen between July and September and are conveyed to new locations by grazing animals, where they are handily deposited along with a fresh supply of manure. This effectively means that it inhabits a ‘Goldilocks’ zone where light grazing is needed to help it spread, heavy grazing can kill it off and a complete lack of grazing can lead to it being crowded out and shaded over.

Fragile Future

The exacting demands of upland pasture species like the Globeflower are surprisingly little-understood by many conservationists, Defra, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs recognises the need for conservation grazing to maintain such habitats but it seems to be something that proponents of ‘re-wilding’ rarely consider when planning to create new woodlands and/or remove all grazing entirely. Often those ‘sheep-blasted’ hills hold some of the most ecologically diverse and important habitats that can be found anywhere in the country!

The Globeflower is a very beautiful and striking plant to see growing amongst the other wildflowers on an early summer’s day, and the hill-pastures and meadows of the northern uplands would be missing a large part of their soul if these unique plants were to vanish. But with the dedication and hard work of volunteers, farmers and conservationists that understand this it should become a common sight in the fields once again.

A B-H