Guidance
Species-rich grassland: indicator species
Find the plant species that are typical of the grassland type on your land parcel for help with action GRH6: Manage priority habitat species-rich grassland.
Applies to England
Find the plant species that are typical of the grassland type on your land parcel. This can support you in carrying out action GRH6: Manage priority habitat species-rich grassland.
Lowland calcareous
- Betony
- Bird’s-foot-trefoil
- Biting stonecrop
- Bloody crane’s-bill
- Carline thistle
- Clustered bellflower
- Common agrimony
- Common rock-rose
- Cowslip
- Dropworts
- Devil’s-bit scabious
- Eyebright
- Fairy flax
- Field scabious
- Gentians
- Greater knapweed
- Hairy violet
- Harebell
- Hawkweed oxtongue
- Hoary plantain
- Hoary rock-rose
- Horseshoe vetch
- Kidney vetch
- Lady’s bedstraw
- Marjoram
- Milkworts
- Mouse-ear hawkweed
- Orchids
- Ox-eye daisy
- Purple milk-vetch
- Restharrow
- Rough or lesser hawkbit
- Sainfoin
- Salad burnet
- Saw-wort
- Small blue-green sedges
- Small scabious
- Squinancywort
- Stemless thistle
- Thyme-leaved sandwort
- Wild basil
- Wild thyme
- Yellow-wort
Lowland dry acid
- Bell heather
- Betony
- Bilberry
- Bird’s-foot
- Bird’s-foot-trefoil
- Biting stonecrop
- Bitter-vetch
- Blue fleabane
- Buck’s-horn plantain
- Common centaury
- Common rock-rose
- Common stork’s-bill
- Devil’s-bit scabious
- Harebell
- Heath bedstraw
- Heath speedwell
- Heather
- Lady’s bedstraw
- Lichens
- Lousewort
- Maiden pink
- Milkworts
- Mouse-ear hawkweed
- Parsley pierts
- Pignut
- Purple milk-vetch
- Rough or lesser hawkbit
- Saw-wort
- Sheep’s-bit
- Sheep’s sorrel
- Shepherd’s-cress
- Thymes
- Tormentil
- Violets
- Wild strawberry
- Wood anemone
- Wood sage
Lowland meadows (including floodplain meadows)
Where this is a floodplain meadow you must have at least one priority floodplain meadow indicator species present at frequency “occasional”, the rest can be made up from the wider list.
- Agrimony
- Autumn hawkbit (priority floodplain meadow indicator)
- Betony
- Bird’s-foot-trefoil
- Bitter-vetch
- Black knapweed
- Bugle
- Burnet saxifrage
- Common bistort (priority floodplain meadow indicator)
- Common meadow-rue (priority floodplain meadow indicator)
- Corky-fruited water-dropwort
- Cowslip
- Devil’s-bit scabious (priority floodplain meadow indicator)
- Dyer’s greenweed
- Eyebright
- Field scabious
- Globeflower (priority floodplain meadow indicator)
- Goat’s-beard
- Great burnet (priority floodplain meadow indicator)
- Greater bird’s-foot-trefoil
- Jointed rushes
- Lady’s bedstraw
- Lady’s-mantles
- Lesser spearwort
- Marsh arrowgrass (local)
- Marsh or fen bedstraw
- Marsh marigold (priority floodplain meadow indicator)
- Meadow saxifrage
- Marsh speedwell
- Marsh valerian
- Meadow thistle
- Meadow vetchling
- Meadowsweet (priority floodplain meadow indicator)
- Milkworts
- Narrow-leaved water- dropwort (priority floodplain meadow indicator)
- Orchids
- Ox-eye daisy
- Pepper-saxifrage (priority floodplain meadow indicator)
- Pignut
- Ragged robin
- Rough hawkbit
- Salad burnet
- Saw-wort
- Small to medium blue-green sedges (glaucous, common, carnation)
- Snake’s-head fritillary (local)
- Sneezewort
- Tormentil
- Tubular water-dropwort (priority floodplain meadow indicator)
- Water avens
- Water mint
- Wood anemone
- Yellow rattle
Purple moor grass and rush pasture
- Bog asphodel
- Bog bean
- Bog-mosses
- Bog pimpernel
- Bugle
- Common valerian
- Cross-leaved heath
- Devil’s-bit scabious
- Globeflower
- Greater burnet
- Greater bird’s-foot-trefoil
- Hemp agrimony
- Jointed rushes
- Ivy-leaved bellflower
- Lesser scullcap
- Lesser spearwort
- Lesser water-parsnip
- Lousewort
- Marsh or fen bedstraw
- Marsh cinquefoil
- Marsh hawk’s-beard
- Marsh marigold
- Marsh pennywort
- Marsh speedwell
- Marsh valerian
- Marsh violet
- Meadow rue
- Meadow thistle
- Meadowsweet
- Orchids
- Purple loosetrife
- Ragged robin
- Rough hawkbit
- Scullcap
- Saw-wort
- Small blue-green sedges (glaucous, common, carnation)
- Sneezewort
- Tormentil
- Water avens
- Water mint
- Whorled caraway
- Wild angelica
Upland hay meadows
- Bird’s-foot-trefoil
- Black knapweed
- Bugle
- Burnet saxifrage
- Common bistort
- Changing forget-me-not
- Devil’s-bit scabious
- Globeflower
- Eyebrights
- Great burnet
- Hawkbits
- Lady’s-mantles
- Marsh marigold
- Marsh valerian
- Meadow saxifrage
- Meadow vetchling
- Meadowsweet
- Melancholy thistle
- Orchids
- Pignut
- Ragged robin
- Saw-wort
- Small blue-green sedges (glaucous, common, carnation)
- Sneezewort
- Tormentil
- Water avens
- Wood anemone
- Wood crane’s-bill
- Yellow rattle
Updates to this page
Published 15 August 2024Last updated 11 December 2024 + show all updates
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Removed Beautiful St John's-Wort from species list.
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First published.