Martha Kearney: I'm worried about Britain's wildflowers - so my husband and I planted a meadow

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BBC

Ever since I was a child I have loved wildflowers. I have fond memories of the woods in Sussex, where I grew up, filling with primroses early in the year and carpeted with bluebells in the spring. I always used their nicknames - "eggs and bacon" for birds-foot-trefoil (a native plant known for its yellow slipper-like petals) and "bread-and-cheese" for the young shoots of the British tree hawthorn, which my friends and I would eat. And pretend to like! We picked rosehips from hedges too, which we split open to make itching powder, perfect for playground pranks. But later in life, on my walks through the countryside, I began to notice dwindling numbers of wildflowers. I missed the grasslands, bursting with colour, that I'd so enjoyed in my childhood.

'As a bee lover I'm on team pollinator - which is one of the reasons why my husband and I decided to plant our own wildflower meadow,' says Martha (pictured right)

According to the charity Plantlife, approximately 97% of wildflower meadows have been lost across the UK since the 1930s, while species-rich grassland areas, which used to be a common sight, are now among the most threatened habitats. "It's definitely a story of severe overall decline, both in the cover of flowers but also the diversity," explains Simon Potts, professor of biodiversity and ecosystem services at Reading University. So, what will happen if there isn't more intervention to save wildflowers? What will the future look like? "Awful, in a word," says Prof Potts. "If we, let's say, take a scenario where we just continue business as usual as we are now, we will still keep losing our wildflowers.