Ermine Street

Ermine Street is the name of a major Roman road in England that ran from London (Londinium) to Lincoln (Lindum Colonia) and York (Eboracum). The stretch from Colsterworth to the A17 is also known as the High Dike and traverses the level, open, dry country of the Lincolnshire Heath. Much of this is a B Road, but the stretch north of the A17 to Waddington Airfield is a public right-of-way, parts of which have wide verges of species-rich limestone grassland, of sufficiently high quality to be notified as a Site of Special Scientific Interest.

I visited today to see if I could update records of a couple of  Nationally Scarce species that haven't been seen for a while, Chalk Eyebright and Bastard-toadflax, which is a hemi-parasite (see extra). My heart sank when I saw that the verges had been mown, but in fact this may have aided my search and I found both species (as well as many others). I was particularly pleased to find a thriving colony of Bastard-toadflax, mostly on rather open-structured grassland at the edge of the track, as this is the most northerly site for this species in Britain, and species at the edge of their ranges are always more vulnerable to extinction.