Last week OPT volunteers were at Hinksey Meadow conducting a count of the Snake’s Head Fritillary, the county flower of Oxfordshire. The fritillary flowers between mid-April and early May and can be spotted due to its distinctive checkered pattern which is often purple or sometimes white. This year our volunteers recorded 392 flowers and 181 vegetative plants. Vegetative plants are part of the fritillary life cycle and these develop for 3-8 years, before flowering and can be hard to spot but are distinguished by their smooth hooded leaves. Thank you to Tim King and Judy Webb for leading the count.

Hinksey Meadow has been managed by OPT since 1997. This traditional floodplain meadow lies between the Seacourt Stream and the Bulstake Stream and regularly floods in both winter and summer. It was probably a hay meadow for much of the last thousand years and is now managed traditionally with a hay cut each July, followed by cattle grazing. The meadow is species-rich, along with the snake’s head fritillary we were pleased to spot more than 20 fronds of Adder's Tongue Fern and a male and female common heath moth. The meadow is also home to 7 acres of rare MG4a grassland of which there are only 200 acres remaining in the whole country.