Attendees / Potential Attendees
Alistair Whyte, Isobel Hall – PlantlIfe – existing experience with SRG projects in Cairngorms Nat Park (IH is their grassland specialist)
Anthony McCluskey – Butterfly Conservation – BC delivered a Tweed Meadows project using Nature Restoration Fund, Anthony currently working with sites in Perthshire
Shona Shental, Eleanor Stamp - NatureScot - ES is NS’s grasslands specialist. Some SRG is designated SSSI but some of this in poor condition. NS are keen to have an SRG GIS-inventory
Drew Kennedy – farmer, Tom o Cluny – we commissioned a Botanical surveyor on this farm last summer – good results
Richard Lockett – agri-environment consultant, worked on many SRG projects in the days of Breadalbane ESA (late 1990s?).
Jamie Jack – Pasture for Life – mob-grazing proponents, pasture management consultants
Denise Reid, Tom Black – PKCT
Clare Hamilton – Chair, Nature Connections Partnership P&K
Nealle Taylor, Adrian Davis, Liz Lavery – local botany specialists
There are several distinct types of species-rich grassland across Perthshire, each with a characteristic set of indicator plants and with different important local sites. Below is a list of the main types you’ll find in Perth & Kinross, the key plants to look for in each, and example Perthshire sites where those grassland types occur (with citations to source material).
Main grassland types, key plant species, and Perthshire site examples
Note: the lists below show the most characteristic/important species (indicator and typical species), not every species present.
1) Lowland calcareous (base-rich) grassland
• Where found / habitat: thin, well-drained soils on limestone, shell-sands or basic glacial deposits; often south-facing slopes and old grazed turf.
• Important plants: Festuca ovina / F. rubra swards with Thymus spp., Helianthemum, Briza media, Carlina, Carex flacca, Danthonia decumbens, Carex caryophyllea, herb species such as Galium mollugo (hedge bedstraw), Geranium sanguineum (bloody cranesbill) at range edges. (See local vegetation surveys for lists.)
• Perthshire examples: small but precious patches recorded in the Tayside / Perthshire area (surveyed and described in local biodiversity reports); specialist calcareous assemblages recorded at upland limestone exposures such as parts of Dun Coillich (vegetation survey) and other Breadalbane calcareous sites (see Ben Chonzie citations).
2) Lowland neutral species-rich grassland (traditional hay meadows / mesotrophic grassland)
• Where found: better-drained, medium-fertility soils historically managed as hay meadows (cut for summer hay) or light grazing.
• Important plants: typical indicator mix including Alopecurus pratensis, Agrostis capillaris, Cynosurus cristatus, meadow herbs such as Primula veris, Centaurium erythraea, Ranunculus acris, Anthriscus sylvestris, Plantago lanceolata, Leontodon hispidus and various Trifolium and Geranium species.
• Perthshire examples: small flower-rich meadows managed by local trusts — e.g. Weem Meadow (Perth & Kinross Countryside Trust) and other lowland hay-meadow remnants recorded in Tayside surveys. NatureScot and local surveys list a number of neutral-grassland SSSIs and priority meadows in the county.
3) Lowland dry acid grassland
• Where found: on acidic, free-draining soils (often heathy mosaics) — common on heathland margins and poorer pastures.
• Important plants: Nardus stricta, Festuca ovina, Agrostis capillaris, Danthonia decumbens, with herbs like Calluna vulgaris (where heath mixes), tormentil (Potentilla erecta), Galium saxatile and Carex spp.
• Perthshire examples: upland and upland-fringe areas across Breadalbane and the Ochils contain acid-grassland patches recorded in local NVC/NatureScot surveys (see Dun Coillich survey and regional grassland reports).
4) Purple moor-grass and rush pasture (wet, species-rich pasture)
• Where found: poorly-drained, seasonally wet pastures and valley bottoms, often with a history of grazing and/or late hay cut.
• Important plants: Molinia caerulea (purple moor-grass), Juncus effusus and other rushes, with tall herbs such as Angelica sylvestris, Filipendula ulmaria (meadowsweet), Cirsium palustre (marsh thistle), Succisa pratensis (devil’s-bit scabious), Lotus spp. and marsh bedstraws.
• Perthshire examples: valley mires, floodplain pasture and rushy meadows across Perth & Kinross are recorded as priority habitat in local surveys and NatureScot SSSI citations (several SSSIs include flushed/wet grassland communities).
5) Upland hay meadow / montane species-rich grassland (montane calcicolous or montane acid)
• Where found: higher elevation grasslands (upland glens, mountain ledges and plateaux), often with specialised montane or calcicolous plant assemblages.
• Important plants: montane specialists such as Carex bigelowii in high heath/grassland, alpine lady-fern assemblages on calcareous montane outcrops; at lower montane calcicolous sites you’ll find species associated with the Breadalbane montane calcicolous flora (rare and range-edge species).
• Perthshire examples: Ben Chonzie and other Breadalbane montane calcareous localities are cited for herb-rich montane/calcareous grassland; Dun Coillich’s upland mosaics also illustrate upland species-rich patches.
6) Wet flushes, spring-fen and mire-associated species-rich grassland
• Where found: springs, flushes and fens in the lowlands and glen bottoms; often a mosaic with mire, swamp and rush pasture.
• Important plants: Juncus spp., Carex spp. (e.g. Carex nigra, C. pulicaris), Molinia in adjacent drier areas, Succisa, Sanguisorba officinalis (on some fens), sedges and various sedge-dominated herb assemblages.
• Perthshire examples: several SSSIs in Perth & Kinross are designated for flush/fen and associated species-rich grassland communities (local planning/ecology reports identify a few notable lowland mire/flush sites).