Published at 11:07, Thursday, 21 July 2011

IT was in July and the green staves of reed canary grass swayed gently with the breeze by the River Cocker, in Lanthwaite Wood, and a ladybird, so tiny, swayed and swung, clinging to the canary grass flowers.

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A familiar insect, a beetle with its horny wing cases and delicate flying wings beneath – a gardeners’ friend. In sheer numbers of species, insects outstrip all other animal groups put together and the beetles make up 40 per cent of all known insects and include those making nocturnal light such as fireflies and glow-worms.

A little later that month I was at Flatford Mill in Suffolk and managed to photograph in close-up one of our nocturnal and most spectacular forms – the stag beetle. Despite its fearsome appearance it is totally harmless. Only the males have the large antler-like mandibles and where the beetle occurs it plays a key role in the woodland decomposer chain.

The female lays its eggs in rotting tree stumps. The grubs hatch out, feeding on the dead wood and take in excess of three years to mature.

The stag beetle is an endangered species, being largely restricted to south east England. Fairly recently a lot of acrimony has been generated among conservationists, when the London Olympics committee allowed the destruction of stag beetle populations with a site being cleared for next year’s horsy events to be held there. So much for wildlife concerns!

Returning to some relative sanity in Cumbria, July is a good time to seek out one of our fairly rare orchids – the dark red melleborine. it occurs in the south of the county and especially at Hutton Roof Crags, where it grows in the deep wide fissures or grykes in the limestone pavement between the blocks of limestone known as clints. Limestone pavement occurs in south Cumbria and north Yorkshire, as well as small areas north of Egremont and the amazingly species rich Burren in the west of Ireland.

To reach Hutton Roof Crags, one can follow the trackway up from Burton in Kendal or the path across from the Clawthorpe Fell road, arriving at the nature reserve managed by Cumbria Wildlife Trust. The grykes, with their reduced light intensity, support a woodland flora.

By early June one may find the lily of the valley flowering in them or the even rarer angular solomon’s seal, as well as the nationally very scarce rigid buckler fern.

The trust took over the site after it had been ravaged for years for the weathered limestone rockery trade, yet many alternatives exist and awareness was first generated by a TV gardener, the late Geoff Hamilton. The trust organised a national survey to highlight the problems and culprits exploiting this endangered habitat – visit limestone-pavements.org.uk/visit.shtml for more information.

Wear stout footwear with a good grip when walking across limestone pavement and watch for the grykes!

On one of my courses, the oldest member was helped across by the sure-footed youngest one, while I kept an eye on the progress of the party and my dog, Tipp. We did find the dark red helleborine flowering in the grykes – a real delight!

One of the more Herculean tasks for the trust in managing the reserve is arresting the formation of ash woodland in the grykes – seedlings become saplings, saplings become larger trees! These crowd out the rare and interesting plants. Removal of the encroaching woodland is essential in conserving the floristic uniqueness of our limestone pavement habitats.

Published by http://www.whitehavennews.co.uk