Rare plant gets big helping green hand

A project to protect Denbighshire wildflowers is growing needed support for a rare species.

Bithynian Vetch is being given a new lease of life during the Great Big Green Week thanks to ongoing work by the Council’s Biodiversity Team and volunteers.

The annual campaign’s theme is encouraging community action to tackle climate change and also protect nature.

The wildflower is only found at a single wildflower meadow location in Denbighshire and since 2019, this is the only place in Wales it has been recorded growing in the wild.

Following the Council’s declaration of a climate and ecological emergency in 2019, the wildflower meadows project is part of an ongoing commitment to enhance and protect biodiversity across the county

Last summer, seeds were collected from the plant growing on the site and taken back to the Council’s tree nursery at St Asaph for future growth.

Now thanks to the work of the biodiversity team and volunteers at the nursery, there are 19 Bithynian Vetch, a species of flowering plant in the pea family Fabaceae, growing at the nursery to help provide a stronger future for the wildflower.

The plants when suitable will be put back into the county’s wildflower meadows to help support the species.

Cllr Barry Mellor, Lead Member for Environment and Transport, said: “This is a rare plant in Wales and we wanted to make sure we could protect this species moving forward for future generations to see.

“It’s great to see this number of Bithynian Vetch growing and we hope these plants once back in the wild will further provide seeds for us to maintain protection of this rare species.”

This project has also been funded by Welsh Government, through the Local Nature Partnerships Cymru ENRaW project.