Fritillary with ant

Still feeling definitely under the weather with this cold, so I decided to postpone my fieldwork to later in the week. Probably a good move, as a gusty wind was forecast - not good when working in woods.

I took Rosie for a morning walk along the river, under beautiful blue skies. I couldn't resist re-visiting the snake's head fritillaries and counted eleven in flower, including a couple of white ones, as well as at least one non-flowering plant. Quite a few of them seemed to be attracting black ants, which you may just be able to see if you look under the magnifying glass.

Fritillary is now one of our rarest meadow plants having declined dramatically due to the drainage and agricultural improvement of its floodplain meadow habitat over the last 50 years. More recently gravel extraction, urban and industrial development, and water abstraction have added to the pressures and losses. It is now confined to less than 30 sites in the river basins of the Midlands, East Anglia and Southern England of which only a handful support significant populations. Whilst it is known to have been cultivated as garden plant since 1597 it was first recorded in the wild in 1737, a curiously late discovery for such a striking plant. This fact has fuelled much debate over whether it is a naturally occurring species in England. Certainly it's appearance at Thorpe Meadows has never been fully explained, though it's now been present for many years and seems to be a self-sustaining population.