Unsung Heroes of the Wildflower Meadow: Highlights of The Year So Far

In honour of National Meadows Day 2025, we highlight some of the most abundant plants in our wildflower meadow so far this year. Bird’s-foot-trefoil, buttercups and self-heal are so widespread that their importance is often overlooked, but Dr. Orton explains bird’s-foot-trefoil’s incredible ecological and agricultural benefits, buttercups’ unique petals and self-heal’s medicinal properties!

To those of us who grow and enjoy wildflower meadows, it often seems like different plants grow more abundantly each year. Last year, we had an abundance of ragwort, which led to the dilemma of whether to remove it due to its toxicity or whether to leave it because of its benefit to nurseryweb spiders and cinnabar moths (click the link to read about our ragwort dilemma)! This year so far, some of our most abundant plants have been Britain’s unsung heroes: bird’s-foot-trefoil, buttercups and self-heal!

Bird’s-foot-Trefoil 

Bird’s-foot-trefoil (Lotus corniculatus) is one of our most common wild flowers in Britain. As a legume, bird’s-foot-trefoil is a member of the pea family, along with peas, beans, vetches and clovers.

Bird’s-foot-trefoil gets its name from its straight, pointed seed pods that look like the foot of a bird. It is also known as ‘egg and bacon’ because of its yellow flowers with red tinges. In Kate Greenaway’s (1884) The Language of Flowers, a classic description of Victorian floriography, bird’s-foot trefoil symbolised revenge.

It is low-creeping, perennial (persisting for several years) and has a woody stem base. The flowers are zygomorphic (bilaterally symmetrical) and the leaves appear trefoil (3-lobed), although there are actually five leaflets, with the lower two bent back by the stem.

Bird’s-foot-trefoil provides food for many different species of invertebrates and its pollen is highly nutritious. Because pollen takes a lot of energy to produce, bird’s-foot-trefoil restricts pollen access to insects more likely to act as pollinators. That’s why bird’s-foot-trefoil evolved an irregular corolla (collection of petals) in which the petals are united at the edges to form a landing platform. Once the insect has landed, it has to prise open the lateral petals to access the pollen. In the process, some pollen grains stick to its body and find their way to other flowers, which is how the plant achieves pollination. Only some insect species, like wasps, bees, and bumblebees can deal with this kind of plant morphology.

Bird’s-foot-trefoil is a favourite food of the red-tailed bumblebee (Bombus lapidarius) and the wool carder bee (Anthidium manicatum). Some bees have become highly specialized to feed on bird’s-foot-trefoil and other legumes (and indeed, the decline of several bumble bee species has been linked to the reduced availability of these). According to Scotland’s Nature, three of Scotland’s rarest bee species are entirely dependent on bird’s-foot-trefoil pollen: the pine-wood mason bee (Osmia uncinate), the mountain mason bee (Osmia inermis) and the wall mason bee (Osmia parietina).

We’ve seen lots of red-tailed bumblebees in particular enjoying our bird’s-foot-trefoil!

Bird’s-foot-trefoil is an important foodplant for caterpillars, including those of the common blue (Polyommatus icarus), green hairstreak (Callophrys rubi), dingy skipper (Erynnis tages), silver-studded blue (Plebejus argus) and wood white (Leptidea sinapis) butterflies. It’s also an important food for the caterpillars of the six-spot burnet moth (Zygaena filipendulae). Butterflies themselves also use it as a food plant, including the common blue, dingy skipper, clouded yellow (Colias croceus), green hairstreak, wood white and silver-studded blue.

Bird’s-foot trefoil is also useful in farming because it is nitrogen fixing. As a legume, bird’s-foot trefoil has nodules on its roots, in which rhizobia bacteria live in a symbiotic relationship. In return for the safety of the root tissue, the bacteria transform atmospheric nitrogen into mineral nitrogen, especially in the early stages of growth.

Not only can bird’s-foot trefoil use this nitrogen, other plants can use it too, and the soil quality will improve overall. That’s why many farmers use bird’s-foot trefoil as a cover crop in between commercial crops. It’s also fast growing and nutritious for livestock, so is good for grazing, hay and silage.

Buttercup

Buttercups are one of our best-known wildflowers with their characteristic five yellow petals. Buttercup flowers are unique because they have a special gloss that makes it difficult to get a good photograph sometimes. It’s also the reason they cast a yellow reflection on our skin, which is the source of the childhood game of holding a buttercup under your chin to see if you like butter!

This gloss helps buttercups by giving out a visual signal to insect pollinators and reflects sunlight to the centre of the flower, helping to heat the reproductive organs. Buttercups are also heliotropic: they move during the day to face the sun so that the flower produces a scent that attracts insects.

We actually have three kinds of buttercup commonly found in the UK: meadow buttercup (Ranunculus acris), creeping buttercup (Ranunculus repens) and bulbous buttercup (Ranunculus bulbosus). Meadow and bulbous buttercups usually grow in grassland and meadow, whereas the creeping buttercup is more likely to grow in damp places in woodlands, gardens and roadsides. We have a lot of meadow buttercups in our wildflower meadow, but we also have creeping buttercups on our lawns and pathways.

It’s easy to tell bulbous buttercups from the other kinds of buttercup because the sepals (outer parts of the flower that protect the petals) on the bulbous buttercup are “reflexed” (they hang down beneath the flower), whereas meadow buttercup’s sepals are pressed against the flower. Meadow buttercups are  taller, and grow to a height of two feet, whereas creeping buttercup grows by spreading along the ground by the use of runners (stolons) that produce their own roots and a daughter plant. This means that creeping buttercups reproduce asexually as well as sexually.

Buttercups contain toxic chemicals that can cause irritation to humans, but they are great for insects! Unlike bird’s-foot-trefoil, buttercups are “primitive” and attract any visitor for pollination. That’s why they have to produce a lot of pollen, as a lot of pollen gets wasted. Short-tongued bees particularly like buttercups because the flower is open with a flat shape so they can reach the pollen. 

Self-heal

Self-heal (Prunella vulgaris) is a perennial herb with purple flowers that grow in whorls and a has purple-tinged seed head. It’s low-growing, so you’ll often see it in short grasslands, woodland clearings,  roadside verges or even garden lawns. We’ve noticed a lot of it along the paths we’ve kept short and in the meadow itself.

Self-heal is edible and a member of the mint family. People use the leaves and young shoots raw in salads, or added to soups and stews. Sometimes the leaves of self-heal are soaked in cold water to make a drink. Reviews of the ethnobotanical, photochemistry, bioactivities and medicinal properties of self-heal show that it contains vitamins A, B, C and K and beneficial flavonoids like rutin.

Self-heal has a long tradition of use in herbal medicine. It’s said to stop bleeding by causing blood vessels to contract and promote self-healing. That’s why it’s also known as Carpenter’s Herb, as carpenters are prone to cuts and abrasions. It’s also said to heal wounds, treat heart disease help sore throats. Sixteenth century English herbalist John Gerard wrote of self-heal’s ability to “join together and make whole and sound all wounds,” cure headaches and resolve “infirmities of the mouth.”

Self-heal’s  flower spikes have traditionally been used to restore the liver and there are scientific studies showing the hepatoprotective (liver-protecting) properties of self-heal. Other studies have shown self-heal to have significant antioxidant properties and strong antibacterial activity against a range of pathogens.

The leaves and stems are said to be hypotensive (reduces blood pressure), and effective against haematuria (blood in urine). Overall, self-heal is said to be a tonic for the gallbladder because of its healing properties.

Of course, these aren’t the only things that have been growing plentifully in the meadow. We still have an abundance of yellow rattle from our initial Yellow Rattle Experiment! Also in abundance this year has been red and white clover, cat’s ear, rough hawkbit, knapweed, yarrow and thistle. The corky-fruited water-dropwort (Oenanthe pimpinelloides), identified in last year’s wildflower botanical survey as a new species for Leicestershire, has also been spreading.

Find Out More

If you’re interested in conservation and wildlife, we have a blog series on British wildlife and a series on the people and wildlife of South Asia, from the altitudes of the Himalayas to the dense mangrove forests of Bangladesh!

We also offer online private tuition in our interdisciplinary course, Culture and Conservation, in which you can explore the links between our natural and cultural heritage and study wildlife and cultures from across the world! This is a template of a possible study route and can be combined, adapted, or designed from scratch to suit your interests and goals.

Dr. Orton will work with you to design a course of private tutorials tailored to your needs, ability and schedule. Click the link to find out what it’s like to work with her and contact us to find out more!

Do More

For those who would like to take action to preserve our wild spaces, there’s plenty you can do. Find out how we started our wildflower meadow, how we created a wildlife pond and how we are planting a native woodland from scratch! Even if you don’t have a big garden, there are plenty of things you can do to help biodiversity in your area. Why not put up a solitary bee nesting box or insect home, create a woodpile as a habitat for small creatures or leave small areas of your garden to go wild?

Think about your own area and how you can protect vulnerable but important parts of your own environment. You might even want to start your own project investigating the cultural importance of wildlife in your area. Dr. Orton works with independent scholars undertaking their own research for an independent project, people writing a book or simply those who have a personal interest. Click the link to find out what it’s like to work with her and contact us to get started!

Reach Out

We’d love to see what you’re doing to help wildlife in your area. Follow the Conservation highlight reel on the Orton Academy Instagram to see what we’re getting up to and tag us in to any snaps you put up!