neyedc
NEYEDC improve and inform environmental decision making, conservation, land management and sustainable development in North and East Yorkshire through the collation, management, analysis and dissemination of biodiversity information.

The Natural History of Yorkshire in 100 Species

Explore the rich and diverse natural history of our region through the stories of 100 species, told by the people who know them best.

#16 Water Violet by Tim Burkinshaw

Meet Tim Burkinshaw, Ecologist for Scarborough Borough Council!

Tim Burkinshaw is the ecologist for Scarborough Borough Council, and has a broad interest in all things nature, gardening, and the outdoors. He runs the ‘Connecting for Nature’ blog, a biodiversity partnership between Scarborough Borough Council, Ryedale District Council, and the Howardian Hills AONB. You can find the project on twitter at @CFNature, and follow Tim directly on twitter at @tim_burkinshaw or on LinkedIn. Tim was also Project Officer for The Carrs Wetland Project, an area of farmland near Scarborough centred around the River Hertford floodplain which inspired this blog!

Tim’s chosen species is the Water Violet Hottonia palustris. This pretty and delicate flower grows on stalks rising above the surface of slow flowing or standing water in streams and pools. Its leaves are unusually feathery and its flowers are pale lilac in colour, with the majority of the plant completely submerged. Despite its name, it is actually more closely related to the primrose family rather than violets – the yellow centre of its flowers bears a resemblance to other primroses. Water Violet is sensitive to water quality and tends to grow where this is good. There is a scatter of sites in the eastern Vale of Pickering, where it grows in wet ditches on The Carrs, Water Violet is much rarer in the north of the country than the south, and is on the Red Data List for England.

Water Violet growing in a roadside ditch at Loders Carr Drain.

Over the years there have been steep and significant declines in Water Violet due to habitat loss, drainage, and poor management – the latter being the most important in Yorkshire. Changes in management have direct impacts on changes in water quality and suitable waterlogged habitats, which the plant is particularly sensitive to by virtue of being almost entirely submerged. Regionally, it has been identified in only a few locations, but probably resides in other areas as yet undiscovered. Perhaps the most interesting detail though, is that these locations are almost all old, relict drains - remnants of historic natural watercourses with years of history behind them.

Tim’s interest in Water Violet peaked during his role as The Carrs Wetland Project Officer, an initiative that worked with local farmers across Cayton and Flixton Carrs in the Vale of Pickering to restore wetland and return to more traditional pastoral farming methods. A large part of this was securing Higher Level Stewardship schemes for the farmers involved in the project to create Farm Environment Plans or their land. But the land has a history pre-dating its agricultural use. 11,000 years ago, this area was a palaeolake, associated with one of the most important Mesolithic sites in Britain, Star Carr. Prior to 1900, the site was naturally wet and poorly drained, so farmers could not farm year-round. As a result, a drainage scheme began where the River Hertford was straightened into a canalised river and counter drains and ditches were cut. This enabled the creation of intensive pasture and arable land more suited to the farming needs of the time. It was in the process of investigating these ditches with a view to ‘reverse engineer’ the area that Tim first became acquainted with Water Violet in one of the ditches at Killerby Carr – which had been designated SINC for its presence. On becoming Project Officer, he discovered further sites in Folkton and at Staxton Carr, and noticed the sites tended to be irregular, wiggly fragments of original watercourses before the River Hertford was straightened. The discovery of Water Violet was special in demonstrating the potential diversity and richness of these areas, but also illuminating the curiosity of the region’s natural history and the complexity of its past management.

Tim notes that whilst the project’s goal was wetland restoration for breeding waders, water voles, otters and other iconic species of our waterways (and of peat which forms the land), the parts of the project that most fascinated people were the links to the Mesolithic history of the land, and the discovery of relict flora such as Water Violet that brought the region’s past to the fore. Tim notes the amazing history beneath what looks to be flat, arable land: metres deep of peat, hand-dug ditches and successive generations of pipes and drainage systems beneath the surface, all demonstrating a centuries-long history of the region and its people.

Old ditch at Loders Carr Drain, a former natural course of the River Hertford (L), and a 20th century straight-cut ditch, cleaned out, (R). Most straight ditches date from the 1900s or later. Some are important for land drainage and are cleaned out regularly. A small number follow the sinuous line of an older watercourse, as in the right hand photo. These tend to be cleaned infrequently if at all and may have remnant flora such as Water Violet.

Monitoring

There are no specific recording schemes for this species, but Tim suggests recording any local sightings to the Vice County botany recorders for VC62 (Dave Barlow) and VC61 (Rohan Lewis).

Further information and acknowledgements

NEYEDC would like to thank Tim for his time and expertise in helping to create this blog. If you’d be interested in contributing a piece for the series, contact Lucy at lucy.baldwin@neyedc.co.uk. To find out more about biological recording, see the Naturalists page on our website.

NEYEDC