Plant |
What does this indicate? |
Possible causes |
Possible solutions |
Soft rush |
Waterlogging
Acidification
Soil disturbance
|
Silting up ditches and grips. Stock poaching in wet conditions |
Restore surface drainage
Apply lime
Avoid overgrazing
|
Sharp-flowered rush |
Wet soil
Low nutrient availability
|
Silting up ditches and grips |
Improve surface drainage and consider addition of farmyard manure
Cut before flood likely to drown shoots
|
Greater pond-sedge |
Waterlogging
Late or missed cuts resulting in a rank sward
|
Silting up ditches and grips
Late (after 15th July) or missed hay cuts, lack of management
|
Restore surface drainage
Cut early (mid June)
|
Reed sweet-grass, reed canary grass |
Ditch siltation and water overspill into meadow resulting in waterlogging |
Silting up ditches and grips |
Maintain ditches,
Cut twice (or at least once!)
|
Slender tufted-sedge, lesser pond-sedge |
Ponding of low lying areas
Consecutive wet summers
|
Silting up ditches and grips |
Maintain surface drains
Cut twice annually for three years (see control of invasive sedges case study)
|
Common nettle |
Eutrophication |
Late or missed hay cuts
Flooding with nutrient-rich water
|
Cut early (mid June)
Cut twice annually (June and September)
Maintain surface drains
Work with agencies to reduce nutrient levels in wider catchment
|
Marsh ragwort |
Waterlogging
Soil disturbance
|
Silting up ditches and grips
Stock poaching in wet conditions
|
Cut early (mid June)
Avoid overgrazing
Consider winter sheep grazing
|
Hogweed |
Eutrophication
Lowering of water level in the river or ditches
|
Flooding with nutrient-rich water
Late or missed hay cuts
Alteration of river management
Over abstraction
|
Maintain surface drains
Work with agencies to reduce nutrient levels in wider catchment
Cut early (mid June)
Cut twice annually (June and September)
|
Curled dock |
Waterlogging
Eutrophication
|
Silting up ditches and grips
Late or missed hay cuts
|
Restore surface drainage
Cut early (mid June)
|
Spear thistle, creeping thistle |
Eutrophication
Soil disturbance
|
Late or missed hay cuts
Stock poaching in wet conditions
|
Cut early (mid June)
Avoid overgrazing
|
Creeping buttercup, hard rush |
Compaction resulting in waterlogging |
Poor timing of grazing and vehicle access |
Avoid vehicle access in wet conditions; avoid grazing when soil too wet to support animals |
False oat-grass, creeping thistle |
Accumulation of ditch spoil above the normal field level |
Insensitive ditching works |
Spread ditch spoil |
Tussocks of course grasses (e.g. false oat-grass, cock's-foot, tufted hair-grass, Yorkshire fog) |
Late or missed cuts
Lack of grazing
|
Late or missed hay cuts
Accumulation of litter through under grazing
|
Cut early (mid June)
Cut twice annually (June and September)
Temporary fencing to keep animals in restricted areas
Revise stocking densities/reinstate aftermath grazing
|