Wild flowers are being driven off Britain’s roadside verges by air pollution and poor management\u200b, the charity Plantlife claims.<\/p>\n
It says emissions from vehicle exhausts are acting as a fertiliser for a group of nitrogen-loving plants like nettles, which outcompete traditional flowers.<\/p>\n
\u200bThe group reports an almost 20% loss in the diversity of plants.<\/p>\n
And this has led to a decline in the insects that depend on many of these plants,\u00a0the charity<\/a>\u00a0says.<\/p>\n \u200bThe government says nitrogen emissions from exhausts will steadily fall as vehicles get cleaner over coming decades.<\/p>\n The\u00a0Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland, BSBI<\/a>, agrees that roadside plant diversity is falling, and nitrogen deposition near roads had increased.<\/p>\n But it said the interplay between air pollution and poor management impacts on roadside verges by local councils was not well understood.<\/p>\n Its spokesman, Kevin Walker, told BBC News: “More frequent cutting with the (mowings) left in place can reduce plant diversity as well. This is due to suppression and disturbance rather than elevation of nutrients.”<\/p>\n Plantlife has been campaigning for local authorities to follow the lead of the Highways Agency and positively reduce nitrogen levels by removing hay from verges.<\/p>\n It admits this will not be easy in areas where motorists have treated the verges as linear rubbish dumps.<\/p>\n Among the nitrogen-lovers thriving on exhaust fumes are those that Plantlife calls the “thugs of the plant world”. They include stinging nettle, bramble, rough meadow-grass, cow parsley, Yorkshire fog and creeping buttercup.<\/p>\n The losers are plants that cannot cash in on the surfeit of nitrogen, so are crowded out.<\/p>\n These include tufted vetch, bugle, tormentil, red clover, lady’s bedstraw, white campion and greater knapweed.<\/p>\n