Wild plants are essential to wildlife

THE COUNTRYSIDE has donned its mantle of green and you can scent the fragrances of early summer, especially the vivid yellow gorse that lights up the landscape in April.

Mon, 27 Apr, 2015 - 01:00

Donal Hickey

Bluebells are waltzing in the breeze and gladdening the world around us.

From days of our youth, we remember picking wildflowers like buttercups, daisies and primroses from the fields for May altars. There was then an abundance of wild plants, but modern farming practices and insecticides have killed a great deal of them.

Many are extinct, as a result, but homeowners can help by leaving margins in their lawns and gardens, for nature. By so doing, they would be benefiting insects, the embattled honeybee and other forms of life.

And it’s not just about the beautiful flowers. For instance, nettles — which provide sustenance to the caterpillars of some of our most delightful butterflies — can thrive almost unseen. Another unpopular plant, the thistle, is also a friend of wildlife, providing food for goldfinches and other birds. There’s no reason why space can’t be found for such plants which are important in the natural scheme of things.

In his learned book, Irish Wild Plants, Niall Mac Coitir, says people with even a small piece of garden can make way for nature. “Surely, there is room in all but the most urban areas for a patch of so-called waste ground to be turned over to wildlife. Such areas need not be unsightly if they are managed in a proper way.”

Old walls, hedgerows and fields that are not worked intensively also offer a home to many native plants which are part of our folklore and traditional herbal medicine. Primrose flowers were regarded as a remedy for nervous disorders and for relaxing stressed-out people. In Co Cork, long ago, primrose tea was considered a cure for insomnia, while in Co Wicklow rubbing a burn with a primrose leaf was said to do the trick.

A check on the internet reveals that wildflower seeds can be purchased here and some useful websites are worth checking. In England, they’ve a scheme going for a number of years to restore wild plants to roadsides and open waste ground in urban areas. And the always interesting BBC Countryfile TV programme has launched a project to distribute 250,000 wildflower seed packs to people all over in the UK, in cooperation with Kew Gardens.

Finally congratulations to the winners of An Taisce’s Greening Communities Awards — Coolagown, Co Cork; Killorglin, Co Kerry, and Wexford town which are protecting and enhancing their natural heritage while make their communities better place to live and work. John Feeney, of Coolagown Development Group, says they have been working for the last 25 years to enhance their village, caring for the environment through education and generating awareness.