Roadside verges and hedges. Their role in regenerating biodiversity. Wildlife corridors. Welcome increase in species locally. Destruction by mowing at peak flowering in early June. Questions remain.
[Draft in progress 25 June 2026 – under editing]
In the worsening global biodiversity crisis, all people, communities, regional authorities and governments can act to restore and protect the plants and plant communities that sustain life on earth.
The latest UK survey of plants by the Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland [1] tells how “….. the Scottish flora has changed over the last century, particularly the spread of non-native species and negative impacts of land management, pollution, and climate. These findings provide a powerful evidence-base for nature recovery, conservation and research, and highlight the changes needed to protect, restore and enhance the Scottish flora in the decades ahead.”
A crucial habitat for plants in 21st century UK is that of the verges and hedges that line roads throughout the country [2]. Verges and hedges are immediately visible to walkers, riders and motorists, who might take assurance, even pleasure, from seeing ‘nature’ close by. The verge plants sustain the underground microorganisms that make and renew soil, and offer food, housing and safe passage for many invertebrates, amphibians, birds and mammals.
Plate 1. Typical high-nutrient, roadside verge dominated by stinging nettle, dock and cleavers; compared to (inset) a patch of flowering red campion and cow parsley, two of many species that have spread in recent years to give functional diversity and colour to verges in this area. (Images: curvedflatlands.co.uk).
Surprising regeneration of wildlife corridors
Many roadside verges in the UK have been degraded through lack of care, poor management, pollution, and an excess of nutrients that encourages domination by a few, typically nutrient-hungry, plants – mostly stinging nettles, docks, thistles and cleavers. These agricultural ‘weeds’ are now rare in the surrounding fields, but thrive on nutrient-rich, unploughed verges.
Yet local people in a part of Perthshire, UK have noted some change in recent years along a rural, single-track road stretching a few miles north from the Carse of Gowrie. The roadside vegetation, previously dominated by the typical nettles and docks, had given way to a more diverse flora [Plates 1, 2]. People using the road were pleased with the emergence of colour and scent in summer, for example the swathes of red campion, sweet cicely, meadowsweet and cow parsley. Below and among them, scattered here and there, were more than 40 other species [3], including pilewort, cuckoo-pint, field scabious, bluebell, bladder campion and blue sowthistle. These plants form a collective that sustains many other creatures above and below ground, including bees and butterflies and birds such as the goldfinch.
Plate 2. Newly thriving on the verges (top left, clockwise): meadowsweet, lords and ladies, field scabious, red campion and blue sow-thistle. (Images by Squire @ curvedflatlands).
The diversified verge flora here combined with species-rich hedges and a roadside drainage system to create a wildlife corridor linking the Carse of Gowrie to higher land to the north. In parts, the drainage takes the form of a stone culvert – built in the Victorian era – running along one side of the road between hedge and verge. The corridor of verge, hedge, mature trees and wet culvert provided not only local food and habitat, but a channel for movement of plants and animals. A recent example is the spread of cuckoo-pint (lords and ladies, Arum maculatum) along the corridor, probably dispersed in the seasonal flow of water.
The corridor is also a route taken by invertebrates and amphibians and by mammals such stoat and hedgehog, and offers a temporary refuge for the brown hare and red squirrel that sometimes use the tarmac in their journeying.
Notably, of the plants now appearing in low frequency are several wild legumes – species that, with the aid of bacteria living in the soil, fix nitrogen from the air into their root system. They tend to prefer, and are indicators of, low-nutrient environments, where they in turn offer a feast to a range of ‘bugs and beasties’ that live in the soil and air. These legumes include red and white clover, meadow vetchling, tufted vetch, bush vetch and bird’s-foot-trefoils. Reasons for such diversification in plant life are uncertain but possibly include a decrease in run-off of nutrients from higher ground, less atmospheric deposition of nitrogen, shifts in weather patterns and later verge-mowing by the local authority.
Destruction – for what reason?
So this year, as May led into June, the verges held glorious swathes of red campion mingled with the white of cow parsley and sweet cicely. Meadowsweet was about to release its fragrance. The arum lily’s berries were just turning to red, and orpine’s flower heads were about to emerge on their succulent stems. Wild strawberry was fruiting in more open spots and the small blue flowers of speedwells and ground ivy were poking through the higher foliage. Isolated clumps of field scabious, vetches and vetchlings were about to offer their nectar and pollen to the local wild bees.
By World Environment Day on 5 June the verges were resplendent. But what’s World Environment Day? [3]. The UN web says “World Environment Day reminds us that we still have time to change course. The Earth is sending us signals. The question is: what signal are we going to send in return?”
Plate 3. Vergemageddon – the Aftermath 1. Verge plants after mowing in the first week of June 2026, (top left, c’wise): cuckoo-pint, its berries green but turning to red; red campion, in glorious full flower, replacing stinging nettles over long tracts of verge; orpine, leaves and stems well grown in readiness for flowering; and sweet cicely (Myrrhis odorata) flowering, filling its seeds and filling the air with aniseed scent. (Images: curvedflatlands.co.uk).
On 6 June, the verge ecosystem was destroyed in a few minutes of verge-mowing. Almost all the flowering legumes were cut – there was nothing left for the pollen-feeders. The effect will be felt down the line: from late June onwards, plants would normally be seeding and storing their hard-won carbon and nutrients ready for the coming winter and next year’s emergence. Many of them will not have the time to re-grow and store. And from the human view, locals would not now see many of these plants in flower for another 12 months.
Not all plants were destroyed. Some were fortunate to grow over a metre from the tarmac, close to a hedge, which was mostly untouched. Others are small enough to avoid the blade, perhaps living in a dip in the ground, like the wild strawberry and ground ivy in Plate 4. Most of the other 40 or so species will re-grow and potentially seed in 2026.
Plate 4. Vergemageddon – the Aftermath 2. Some survivors, for now #(top left c’wise), wild strawberry handing on in a dip; holly seedling; wild rose intact, hanging from the adjoining hedge; and ground ivy, about 3 cm tall, just avoiding the blade. (Images: curvedflatlands.co.uk).
But why – ask many people from the local community – were the verges smashed at their peak in early June? The Council were already aware of the importance of these verges as part of a wildlife corridor [4]. One resident asked the Council for an explanation and was told it was for the purpose of road safety. But the hedges and verges along this stretch do not for the most part encroach on the tarmac at this time of year and verges are not the main hazards for pedestrians, dog walkers, cyclists and horse riders. Or was this early-June verge-mowing linked to wider, ongoing threats to the safety of these U-roads due to other reasons. (More on this via a later curvedflatlands blog).
Hey | You | Get Offa Ma Cloud Road !
There’s a widespread problem of traffic on rural roads where there are far more deaths per vehicle or per miles travelled than on motorways and A-roads [5]. The problem has many roots. Yes, this is farmland and farm vehicles have become heavier and wider, but for the most part, local farm traffic knows the road, is part of the community, and generally considerate of others.
More generally, among the main hazards on rural, single-track roads are impatient motorists in all kinds of vehicles who expect walkers, dogs, cyclists, riders to get off, to get out of their way. And according to national records, quite a number of such drivers having been diverted off wide but congested major roads by their sat-navs, and are annoyed and frustrated at the narrowness, bends and limited visibility of single-track country lanes [5].
Whether the drivers are safe and considerate or otherwise, the question is asked – where is ‘off’ the road. And the answer in most places is the verges. The ground beneath the verge vegetation tends to be uneven in places and where covered in chest high stinging nettles and spiny thistles may be difficult to enter. So there is some justification in mowing on grounds of safety.
There has to be a balance between ensuring safety and restoring much-depleted biodiversity. Yet the need for safe spaces for people, dogs, bikes and horses should not require indiscriminate cutting of all verge vegetation over a few kilometers. Cuts just 2 or 3 metres long could be made every (say) 50 metres or so, especially where the nettles dominate. And there is no reason to cut vegetation where the verge is a steep slope which most pedestrians, etc. would not use in any case.
Plants are more than names
This mowing in June may be just one incident in one year. None of the species noted under sources is in danger of extinction. Yet many of them are in decline – a trend often caused by many, seemingly small, local events. Over time decline leads to rarity and then to extinction.
Many of these plant species will together support a wide range of ecological functions Their simultaneous loss will have many knock-on negatives for all sorts of other creatures. For example, the nitrogen-fixers – the vetches, vetchlings, trefoils, clovers and other legumes – will offer no further nutrition to bees and many other insects in the coming summer and autumn (Plate 5).
Questions remain unanswered over the management of wildlife corridors in this area, and in particular the early June mowing of 2026. More to follow.
Plate 5. Wild bees on tufted vetch (left) and field scabious. Photographs taken in a previous year a few miles from the site by www.livingfield.co.uk.
Authors: Geoff Squire (geoff.squire@outlook.com) and Kathryn Squire, with information from many local residents concerned about biodiversity-loss and road safety.
Sources | Links
[1] Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland (BSBI). The major surveys by the BSBI give an authoritative account of state and change in the UK’s plant life. The quote in paragraph 2 is from the Summary report for Scotland and continues with the following lines “These measures include better protection for plants, the restoration of the ecological conditions that they need, managing land more sustainably, putting plants at the centre of conservation schemes, strengthening monitoring and surveillance, and raising awareness of the threats plants face and the vital role they play in our daily lives.” BSBI sources: Introduction to Plant Atlas 2020 at https://bsbi.org/plant-atlas-2020; Atlas online at https://plantatlas2020.org; and Summary report for Scotland published 2025 here.
[2] Plantlife gives information on the importance of verges as biodiversity refuges and wildlife corridors, plus advice and guidance on their management: see ‘Managing road verges and green spaces’ online at https://www.plantlife.org.uk/learning-resource/managing-road-verges-and-greenspaces/
[3] World Environment Day, sponsored by the United Nations, is the largest global platform for environmental public outreach and is celebrated by millions of people across the world. It is held on on 5 June each year: https://www.un.org/en/observances/environment-day
[4] Plants of the verge. Despite the dominance in many stretches of stinging nettle (Urtica dioica), dock (Rumex obtusifolius), thistle (Circium arvense) and cleavers (Galium aparine), the verges described here provide habitat for many other species. The following are some of those noted over the past year or two while strolling along the lane (i.e., not from a formal botanical survey). There will be many other species, which will be added when remembered.
First, some dicot (broadleaf) species and couple from the Lily family. Since many species have more than one common name, and to assist readers from other countries, species or genera are listed in order of botanical or Latin name. Aegopodium podagraria (ground elder); Ajuga reptans (bugle); Alliaria petiolata (garlic mustard); Anthriscus sylvestris (cow parsley); Arum maculatum (lords and ladies, cuckoo-pint); Bellis perennis (daisy); Centaurea nigra (common knapweed); Cicerbita macrophylla (common blue-sowthistle); Digitalis purpurea (foxglove); Galium verum (lady’s bedstraw), Geum rivale (water avens); Geum urbanum (wood avens); Geranium robertianum (herb robert); Heracleum sphondylium (hogweed); Hyacynthoides non-scripta (bluebell); Filipendula ulmaria (meadowsweet); Fragaria vesca (wild strawberry); Glechoma hederacea (ground ivy); Hypericum family (various St John’s-worts); Knautia arvensis (field scabious); Lapsana communis (nipplewort); Lathyrus pratensis (meadow vetchling); Lotus corniculatus (bird’s-foot-trefoil); Myrrhis odorata (sweet cicely); Primula veris (cowslip); Sedum telephium (orpine); Ranunculus ficaria (lesser celandine or pilewort); Ranunculus repens (creeping buttercup); Silene dioica (red campion); Silene latifolia (white campion); Silene vulgaris (bladder campion); Scrophularia nodosa (common figwort); Sinapis arvensis (charlock); Sonchus oleraceus (smooth sowthistle); Stachys sylvatica (hedge woundwort); Taraxacum complex (dandelion); Veronica species (various speedwells); Trifolium pratense (red clover); Trifolium repens (white clover); Vicia cracca (tufted vetch); Vicia sepium (bush vetch).
Now to the grasses, horsetails and ferns. The grass family here includes Arrhenatherum elatius (false oat-grass); Avena sativa (wild oat); Dactylis glomerata (cocksfoot); Holcus lanatus (Yorkshire fog) and one or more species each of Alopecurus (foxtails), Agrostis (bents), and Poa (meadow grasses). Must consult Hubbard! There are one or more horsetail species (Equisetum) and several ferns which we must identify … !?
[Authors’ note: The Botanical or Latin names of species sometimes change as new information arises about their genetic heritage. Some of the above names are not the latest!]
[5] Communication by Kathryn Squire: Reduction in Biodiversity in Knapp Conservation area, 2 April 2026, to local Councillors from Perth and Kinross Council (PKC), PKC Officials and Councillors from Angus Council.
[6] Observer, 11 June 2026. Drivers urged to ignore satnav diversions by Neil Lancefield. A short article in a Sunday newspaper on the dangers to human life on rural roads. It tells of the finding by road safety charity IAM Roadsmart that more than half of drivers had said they were diverted to rural roads due to congestion. The context is that more deaths occur on rural roads despite lower traffic than on motorways and A roads. Cited source – Department for Transport. (Note from authors: data above cited for 2024-25 not yet confirmed).