MBAN – Page 5 – Other Services

Rob Duffy: Sidewalk Botanist gets close and personal with a saxifrage and illustrates the tribulations of using

Post published:31 May 2018
Post category:Nature Notes

I borrowed BioBank’s copy of “Poland” to try and resolve the mystery of its identity from a
fragment I had taken – comprising fully intact leaves- and found myself keying out Saxifraga
umbrosa (Pyrenean saxifrage) , or Saxifrage nivalis (Alpine saxifrage). I was really attracted to the
latter because “Poland” refers to “the long wavy cilia near the base” (of the petiole).

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Hugh Harris: Asparagus Trail, Formby Point NT. SD280065

Post published:31 May 2018
Post category:Nature Notes

Formby Asparagus (also the name of the variety) is white at the base and green through the stem with a purple tinged tip. New asparagus crowns are grown from seed which is saved from the old plant. After the first year, the crowns are transplanted into a 20cm deep trench and a ridge 8cm high is piled up around them. The first cutting can be taken in the third year. While tractors are now used to manage the land, the crop is cut by hand.

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Hugh Harris:WILDFLOWERS WORK – The National Wildflower Centre @The Eden Project

Post published:30 May 2018
Post category:Nature Notes

Objectives:

Fifteen months after the closure of Landlife and National Wildflower centre in Knowsley, to raise awareness of the opportunity to build upon this charitable legacy, the wildflower fields and harvests and the projects, and a new future with Eden Project.
To launch new partnerships which have the potential to build on the grass-roots nature of the work and to make wildflowers more of an integral part of urban planning and peri-urban sites, bridging rural divides, with environmental justice.
To engage people in support of the Northern Flowerhouse and the National Wildflower Centre, charting a forward-looking vision for creative conservation in Merseyside and across the North. Linking Northern and Southern energies.
To inspire forward-looking thinking in what is meant by green infrastructure.
To make clear links between environmental action and social justice.
To celebrate wildflower landscapes and to openly thank those who have stood by the ethics and have supported the past work and charitable purpose of Landlife and the National Wildflower Centre.

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Hugh Harris: Lunt Meadows and Wetlands Nature Reserve, SD3402

Post published:20 April 2018
Post category:Nature Notes

Lunt Meadows is an entirely new 77 ha wetland nature reserve, located along the River Alt floodplain, owned by the Environment Agency, in North Merseyside. It is sited adjacent to an area of raised bank suspected to be the first point of overtopping in a flood event. In July 2010 the River Alt bank did breach in this location and an area of 80 ha was inundated to a maximum depth of 1m. Developing habitats include wet grassland, reedbed, fen and open water. The site is managed primarily for breeding waders and water vole.

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