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Yarley Meadows

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Grid reference
  
ST757888

Area of search
  
Area
  
12.2 hectare

Interest
  
Biological

Notification
  
1987

Yarley Meadows httpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommonsthu

Yarley Meadows (grid reference ST757888) is a 12.2-hectare (30-acre) biological Site of Special Scientific Interest in Gloucestershire, notified in 1987.

Contents

Location and habitat

The site, which consists of three fields, is in the south of Gloucestershire and is adjacent to Lower Woods which is also an SSSI. The meadows are unimproved neutral grassland. They are traditionally managed and support a diversity of species. Such grassland is now rare in the United Kingdom.

The meadows are on Jurassic and Cretaceous clays (Denchworth Series). They are water-logged in the winter months and poorly drained. Mature hedges surround and breakup the meadows and there are ponds in two fields.

Flora

The grass species include Crested Dog's-tail, Sweet Vernal-grass, Yorkshire Fog, Red Fescue and Quaking-grass. Sedge and Rush are in abundance in the wetter parts of the fields and include Glaucous Sedge, Hairy Sedge. Soft Rush and Hard Rush.

Herbs include Dyer's Greenweed, Saw-wort, Adder's-tongue, Common Knapweed, Betony and Pepper Saxifrage. Yellow-rattle, Common Spotted-orchid, Sneezewort, Cowslip and Hoary Plantain are also recorded.

Invertebrates

The meadows support large numbers of butterflies such as Meadow Brown and Gatekeeper.

SSSI Source

  • Natural England SSSI information on the citation
  • Natural England SSSI information on the Yarley Meadows unit
  • References

    Yarley Meadows Wikipedia


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