Rutland wildlife expert says 'make space for wildflowers' after species decline

Rutland wildlife experts are urging us to make space for wildflowers to grow in our gardens to help save our native plants.

It's after a new report from the botanical society of Britain and Ireland showed over half of species like heather have declined over the past two decades due to issues like climate change.

Andy Nielson, from the Leicestershire and Rutland wildlife trust, says it's vital we look after our flora: "These native plants are so integral to the other wildlife that lives in this country that losing plants will inevitably have knock-on effects for all the other wildlife that feeds on them. From birds to butterflies, to invertebrates, to spiders.

"Everything one way or another relies on plants."

Thousands of botanists from the Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland (BSBI) have spent the last twenty years collecting data on changes in the British and Irish flora. The results have now been published in Plant Atlas 2020 and four main trends have emerged since the 1950s:

• 53% of our native plants such as Heather and Harebell have declined in Britain due to human impacts such as agricultural intensification and climate change.
• non-native plants now outnumber native plants in the wild – this startling discovery has huge implications for the insects and other species that depend on our native plants.
• many non-native species are benign but some such as New Zealand Pigmyweed and Sitka Spruce have become invasive, disrupting ecosystem function and outcompeting native species.
• many montane plants have declined due to climate change whereas some southern species such as Bee Orchid have benefited and spread further north.

Plant Atlas 2020 is the most in-depth survey of the British and Irish flora ever undertaken. It builds on two previous Atlas surveys undertaken by the BSBI in the twentieth century.