Long Mead Farm and Local Wildlife Site
  Long Mead County Wildlife Site
  • Long Mead
    • The Farm
    • Our Habitats >
      • The hay meadow
      • The orchard >
        • Find the stories of the orchard trees
      • The river and reed bed
      • The fuel copse
    • Our plants
    • Collaborations
    • Long Mead Foundation
  • THAMES VALLEY WILDFLOWER MEADOW RESTORATION PROJECT
    • Meadow Restoration: step by step
  • Research
    • Soil Carbon
    • Invertebrate Diversity
    • Botanical Surveys
    • Wildlife surveys >
      • Enter records
      • Map of Records
  • Outreach
    • Care Farming
    • NATURE RECOVERY NETWORK
    • Schools >
      • Schools Nature Recovery Network
      • School Visits
      • Teacher's resources >
        • Long Mead and the National Curriculum
        • Long Mead and History >
          • Famous Eynsham Apple Growers
          • Water meadows in history
          • Long Mead and River Thames before Tudor times
          • Swinford Toll Bridge and highwaymen: Tom, Dick and Harry
          • The Thames at Long Mead in literature
          • Risk Assessment of Long Mead
          • The Countryside Code
    • Worshops/Training >
      • Meadow Restoration
      • Teachers Workshops
      • Hedge-laying
      • Community Meadows
      • Art and Science
    • Media Coverage

​LONG MEAD FLOODPLAIN HAY MEADOW

​Long Mead hay meadow is over 1000 years old. According to the entry for Eynsham in the Domesday Book it provided most of the hay for the village at that time. Being fertilised by silt from the River Thames during winter floods, floodplain meadows were the most fertile land in the country until the advent of artificial fertilisers. For over a millennium, Long Mead has been managed in the same way - a hay crop is taken in July and the second crop of grass which emerges in August/September is used for cattle or sheep grazing. This continuous management, which prevents any single plant species from dominating the sward, is what sustains its extraordinary biodiversity. Meadows are the most biodiversity habitats in the UK. On Long Mead we have over 120 species of plant, on which an extraordinary diversity of animals depend. Our current research with the Global Malaise Program and with entomologists Ryan Mitchell and Michael Wilson is trying to determine the diversity of invertebrate species that depend on Long Mead. Click on the flowers to learn all about them. A full plant list can be downloaded below.
Picture
000longmead_separate_species_list.xls
File Size: 45 kb
File Type: xls
Download File

Contact; Catriona Bass                               

EMAIL LONGMEAD.COUNTYWILDLIFESITE@GMAIL.COM

LONG MEAD FOUNDATION (Charity number 1196294): Email longmeadfoundation@gmail.com
​