PA092/A/08 Primrose - a good indicator of Biodiversity

By David Gillespie, Senior Countryside Management Adviser, DARD

Noticed any primroses out in bloom? Have you any growing on your hedge banks?

This common and easily recognised plant grows in a wide variety of habitats such as woodland, scrub and the hedgerows. The plants like damp soil with dappled shade, but don’t like nutrients and sprays.

If you have nettles growing in the hedge bank then it’s a sign of high fertility – from spreading fertilizer and organic manures. If you have primroses growing, then it’s a good sign of biodiversity – with a diverse range of plants that only grow where fertility is low.

Farmers in the Countryside Management Scheme and Environmentally Sensitive Areas Scheme are helping to keep primroses in their hedge banks by leaving a one metre uncultivated strip at the edge of any field boundary.  This acts as a buffer from farming operations.  Applications of organic or inorganic fertiliser, pesticides or herbicides are not permitted in this strip, helping plants, such as the primrose, to survive.

For further information please contact your Countryside Management Adviser at your local DARD office.

All media enquiries to DARD Press Office, tel: 028 9052 4619.