Buglife and Glasgow City Council have created and enhanced more than 13 hectares of wildflower meadow during the three-year project started in May 2011, and was grant funded by Landfill Communities Fund.
Meadows have been created through seed sowing and plug planting of native wildflower species such as Field scabious, Common knapweed and Red clover in more than 13 parks across Glasgow, including Hogganfield Park, Linn Park, Glasgow Green and Victoria Park.
During the project, surveys for pollinating insects in the parks before and after meadow creation have recorded a total of 139 species of invertebrate across the parks. It is thought that at least 17 of these are new to the Glasgow area including the distinctive leaf beetle (Galeruca tanaceti) found on Common knapweed at Linn Park and the solitary parasitic bee (Sphecodes geoffrellus) recorded foraging on Ragwort at Alexandra Park.
The diversity of species recorded during the project highlights not only the importance of wildflower meadows for invertebrates, especially pollinators, but also how under-recorded invertebrates are, even in our big cities.
Suzanne Bairner, Buglife Conservation Officer said: “These meadows have significantly increased the available habitat for a wide range of invertebrate species, particularly pollinating insects, but also for other wildlife such as small mammals, birds and amphibians. I never thought I would see grasshoppers laying eggs and Small Copper right in the heart of Glasgow!”
Read the final report on the project here.
