#75 Meadow Saxifrage by Deborah Millward
Meet Deborah Millward, botanist, former VC recorder, and trustee!
Deborah studied dairying and worked in microbiology labs for ten years before abandoning lab work for a more outdoor life. Frustrated by the lack of a county Flora for VC65, Deborah joined fellow WEA (Workers Education Association) students to compile a Flora of Wensleydale in time for the centenary of the publication of John Percival’s plant list. She also worked on meadow monitoring and surveying in the Pennines Dales ESAs (Environmentally Sensitive Areas) and on a succession of long-term meadow research projects run by Newcastle University. In addition, Deborah became the VC65 recorder for the BSBI (Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland) in the run up to the publication of the Atlas 2000, until the lack of local broadband became inhibiting!
Deborah was a founder trustee of the Yorkshire Dales Rivers Trust, the largest in the country by area, and was later its chairman. She ran their first major project, working with farmers in Raydale to demonstrate the principles of sustainable catchment management. The project spawned the development of the hydroelectric power plant at Bainbridge, with which she is still associated. Deborah also did a ten-year stint as a Secretary of State appointee to the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority.
A regular attender of BSBI meetings locally, Deborah is still a compulsive botaniser and submits many records to the current VC recorder.
Deborah’s chosen species is Meadow Saxifrage Saxifraga granulata. This is a native perennial plant of the UK, typically found growing in grassland meadow. It is a fairly short plant growing only to about 35cm, with fan or kidney-shaped leaves growing close to its base and beautiful white flowers, which grow in small clusters, appearing at the end of long stems. Meadow Saxifrage dies down completely long before winter and stores its energy in underground granules - hence the granulata in the Latin name.
Meadow Saxifrage
Deborah was first introduced to the species in her thirties, upon moving to Derbyshire: ‘I first saw it growing in a meadow near my new home and I was taken by the beauty of its particularly solid shade of white. It was the first Latin species name I learnt: Saxifraga granulata. Raised on Cicely M. Barker’s Flower Fairy books, I had always enjoyed flowers but there was no Meadow Saxifrage flower fairy and I was under the illusion that one had to climb high Scottish mountains to see a saxifrage. To find one close to my home was both a surprise and a delight, and I have been a fan ever since.’
Whilst in Derbyshire, Deborah studied for an Open University degree and decided to use the two fields behind her home, a meadow and a pasture, in a comparative study for the obligatory ecology project. There was no Meadow Saxifrage in the pasture but an amazing 13% cover in the meadow - seemingly this was an aptly named species. Deborah argued that the hay meadow management allowed the plant to complete its annual cycle whereas the more or less continuous grazing throughout the summer season in the pasture did not…but has since learnt to refute that argument.
On moving to the Yorkshire Dales, Deborah found Meadow Saxifrage was everywhere about the village they had settled in, and only in pastures – later finding out it was a fortuitous hot-spot for the plant. The Yorkshire botanist John Percival,* who was born in a neighbouring village in 1863, had compiled an annotated list of plants growing in Wensleydale. This was published in The Naturalist, the journal of the Yorkshire Naturalists Union, in 1888. Here he noted that Saxifraga granulata was “common around Thornton Rust” and it still is.
Meadow Saxifrage leaf with pound coin for scale
Unfortunately, Meadow Saxifrage has inevitable declined in the area over the last 40+ years. The usual suspects (intensive farming, tree planting, and development) have inevitably taken their toll, but Meadow Saxifrage is a resilient plant. In 2001 when Foot and Mouth disease hit the dale and movement of livestock was prohibited, or in Thornton Rust’s case slaughtered, many fields went ungrazed. That spring, restricted to walking only along the roads, it was amazing how many fields still showed traces of flowering Meadow Saxifrage, even in places Deborah had never seen it before. Mostly confined to wall bottoms, but still very identifiable from a distance, Meadow Saxifrage brought joy to a pretty joyless spring. It is not just agricultural land where that resilience is evidenced. Several early 20th century houses locally have lawns developed from native turf. These lawns have been tightly mown for decades and yet, when circumstances change and the vegetation is allowed to grow, Meadow Saxifrage can return. Usually, the resumption of lawn mowing leaves no trace, but in one case the lawn is now managed benignly and it is here that these photographs were taken.
It was from here also that 100 plant plugs of Meadow Saxifrage were taken to be planted in the experimental plots at Colt Park, where Newcastle University were running meadow restoration research. Meadow Saxifrage may be resilient but, sadly, not a single specimen survived. This raises the question: just what conditions do suit this species? If one searches John Rodwell’s British Plant Communities Volume 3, covering grasslands, not a single mention is found. Like C. M. Barker’s fairies, one draws a blank.
Fortunately, the Botanical Society’s Plant Atlas 2020 tells a different story, one which confers with Deborah’s observations in northern England. It says Meadow Saxifrage thrives in neutral meadows, like her Derbyshire one, and lightly grazed limestone pastures as found in Wensleydale. The Atlas mentions the highest record as 580 m, which matches Deborah’s personal record, also 580 m at the top of Bardale where it is joined by Mossy Saxifrage. Both are frequent on thin soiled, upland limestone pastures where sheep rarely graze until late in the season, well after lambing.
Where Deborah’s observations differ from those given in the Atlas are over the flowering period and “apparency” i.e. when the leaves or dead flowering stems are still visible. The wide range given in the Atlas clearly covers from Surrey to Scotland but in Thornton Rust, at a mere 250m, the first leaves appear in February at the earliest. They hug the ground evading grazing and notice, which is a shame because they are beautiful in their own right, orbicular with a scalloped edge. The flowering stems shoot up in mid-May and by mid-June both gone. Maybe it is the elusiveness of the leaves and ephemeral nature of the flowers that add to the appeal of this delightful plant, giving it real star quality.
Recording and monitoring
Records of Meadow Saxifrage and other botanical records can be submitted to your VC recorder. VC recorder details can be found here: Plants (ynu.org.uk)
Further information and acknowledgements
NEYEDC would like to thank Deborah for her time and expertise in helping to create this blog.
* Professor John Percival went on to co-found Wye College and became the world authority on wheat.