The Effects of Mowing on the Meadow Cranes-Bill Geranium pratense L., and on the Weevil Zacladus geranii (Payk.)

Abstract

Many plants which formerly were characteristic of meadows and rough pastures are now largely confined to road verges. Way (1969) studied the effects of cutting and spraying practices on the plant communities of road verges to determine how floristic diversity is affected and how to maintain a rich flora while fulfilling the requirements of highway authorities. However, little is known about the response of the majority of individual plant species to roadside management and still less about the reactions of the fauna. The management of road verges has altered markedly during the past 20 years and is still in a state of change; adjustments in the flora and associated fauna are still, therefore, taking place. This study was designed to assess the short-term effects of a range of cutting treatments on the performance of a moderately common and attractive roadside plant and on an insect which depends on its ripening seeds. Meadow cranesbill is a widespread, if local, plant over most of Britain though absent as a native from the south-west, much of Wales, west Scotland and Norfolk. In Warwickshire it occurs most commonly on roadsides, railway banks and waste places (41%0 of records), by watersides (24%)0 in grassland (210%) -and in hedgerows (13%) (Cadbury, Hawkes & Readett 1971). Elsewhere it is most often reported from moist meadows, roadsides, waste places, by streams and in damp shady places such as willow carr. It occurs throughout Cambridgeshire, except on the sands, and is locally frequent on boulder clay in the south-west of the county (Evans 1939; Perring, Sell & Walters