Lowland grasslands

Grassland covers a third of Scotland and feeds our cattle and sheep as well as much of our wildlife - think of badgers foraging for worms, bumblebees collecting pollen, lapwing nesting in open fields, predatory beetles hunting smaller insects, crane's-bill and pignut flowering on a grassy road verge.

Most farmland grasslands are fertilised to be productive but this makes them species-poor because it encourages a few grass species to grow rapidly and crowd out the smaller, slower-growing species. In contrast, unimproved lowland grasslands are the small meadow areas that have not been fertilised and are still full of flowers, rushes, sedges, mosses and the great variety of wildlife that has been squeezed out of productive grasslands.

Many colourful flowering plants grow in these grassland areas, such as purple thyme and knapweed, yellow primrose and rockrose, white eyebright and oxeye daisy, pink orchids and red clover. These plants support insects that feed on their nectar and pollen, buzzing from one flower to the next. This abundance of insects, including bumblebees and butterflies, attracts birds such as the yellowhammer, nesting in nearby hedges, and the skylark, raising its young on the ground in open fields.

A rare habitat

Unimproved lowland grasslands are rare in Scotland now because farmers have been improving their land to increase yield for centuries. While this has produced ever more meat and milk, it has also upset the balance of species that co-existed over the years. It has replaced diverse ecosystems with simple ones that depend on chemical inputs. 

Why are they important?

Despite these changes, small areas of unimproved lowland grasslands have survived, especially in places where access for farm machinery is difficult. The farmers who are the guardians of these special places ensure that species such as orchids and globeflower can still be found in abundance. They show us what grasslands used to look like before ploughing and fertilising become common practices. They are a source of seed for the many grassland species that can't survive in productive grasslands.

The species in these grasslands enjoy a certain level of grazing - enough to ensure the meadow does not become overgrown and rank, but not so much as to prevent the flowers from seeding. Many grassland plants need small open spaces to germinate while many invertebrates need tussocks for shelter, so the best grasslands for wildlife contain both short and long patches - a variety of micro-habitats for a variety of species.