Flower meadow

Flower meadow in the Swiss Alps

In colloquial language, species-rich meadows (occasionally also other grassland communities ) are referred to as flower meadow , which have many flowering herbaceous plants ( flowers ). In past centuries these meadows unintentionally emerged by themselves through traditional forms of agricultural land use that were common at the time, but today they can usually only be maintained through special measures or, if necessary, re-established. The flower meadow is the 2011 biotope .

In gardens and in gardening and landscaping , the flower meadow is an above all aesthetic design goal that offers different aspects of color and height over the course of the seasons. The focus is not on nature conservation , but on the aesthetic experience. So-called flower meadow mixtures, which are offered in the trade, often do not contain any plant species from the meadows, but annual species such as poppy and cornflower that bloom in the first year, mostly in garden or cultivated forms. These are not types of traditional meadows.

Traditional meadows

Summer flowers in Mecklenburg

The meadow habitat was created and shaped by human influence. Meadows are generally used for mowing - in contrast to pastures , which are grazed by cattle. Is the use of adjusted verbrachen the meadows, the characteristic community is lost.

Today's agricultural fat meadows , which have been optimized for high yields through melioration measures , consist almost exclusively of grass species and are almost always poor in flowers. Occasionally there are still a few types of herb that can then develop in mass occurrences, but herb types can be almost entirely absent in particularly tall stands. The high level of fertilization with nitrogenous fertilizers has a particularly strong effect here. Compared to this modern economic grassland, the areas that are still traditionally cultivated or where even biotope maintenance has replaced an actual use or pushed it into the background stand out. In agriculture, these are referred to as extensive grassland or biotope grassland.

Summer flower sowing (horticultural "flower meadow") in Monheim

Flower meadows as grassland biotopes are divided by vegetation experts according to the respective combination of plant species into very different types of vegetation, which have been described as plant communities according to the plant sociological method . In biotope mapping and landscape ecology , different types of biotope are distinguished on this basis .

Dry grass

Dry grassland and poor grassland are completely unfertilized, particularly species-rich grassland habitats that are sometimes mowed, but more often grazed. Especially floriferous are Kalktrockenrasen (Mesobrometum) and base-rich Nardus grasslands (Nardetum) while base poor Nardus grasslands and sandy grasslands are poorer blossom naturally.

Fettwiesen

From a vegetation perspective, the fatty meadows include not only the heavily fertilized intensive grasslands, but also naturally nutrient-rich or poorly fertilized, species-rich meadows. The transition from the dry grass to the actual meadows is fluid, depending on the nitrogen content of the soil (unlike what one would expect from the name, soil moisture hardly plays a role, as has been known for over 50 years). Transitional forms, which from a vegetation point of view already belong to the fat meadows, are called dry meadows or poor meadows . Typical plant communities are the smooth oat meadow (Arrhenateretum elatioris) in lower elevations and the golden oat meadow (polygono trisetion) in the mountains and low mountain ranges. These meadow types are rich in flowers and are the actual "flower meadows". Some typical types of herbs are:

• white flowering: meadow marguerite , meadow bedstraw , wild carrot , meadow chervil
• yellow flowering: trefoil , Lathyrus pratensis , meadow buttercup , Crepis biennis , Meadow Parsnip , Cowslip , Meadow Salsify , Dandelion
• Blue, red and purple blooming: meadow clover , meadow cranesbill , meadow bellflower , field scabious , meadow knapweed , meadow sage , germander speedwell
• Greenish blooming: Pointed lady's mantle , ribwort , common sorrel

A striking number of these species already have the meadow in the (German) name and thus indicate the focus of their occurrence.

Wet meadows

Wet meadows are meadow communities that are soaked in the ground, mostly with high groundwater. The actual wet meadows, referred to in plant sociology as marsh marigold meadows or cabbage thistle meadows (Calthion), correspond to the smooth oat meadows on wetlands, they are just as rich in species and flowers as these. With very abundant nitrogen fertilization (as is the rule with today's agricultural land use), they are mostly displaced by meadow foxtail meadows with little flowers.

Management

fertilization

Flower meadows are more species-rich the less they are fertilized. Without nitrogen fertilization, most plant species have species-rich meadows to develop. With nitrogen fertilizers , few species like the meadow foxtail are so competitive that other species cannot survive. If there is a strong organic fertilization and no pasture care is taken, weeds can spread - such as blunt-leaved dock , common dandelion and couch grass . In formerly fertilized meadows, after conversion to extensive agricultural use, it often takes many years until the enriched nutrients are removed from the soil. Nutrient deprivation only takes place when flower meadows are mowed in spring or summer and the cuttings are removed. See extensive grassland

Number of cuts

Before nitrogen fertilization was introduced in agriculture, a meadow was mowed once or twice (= two-furrow) a year to make hay . The plant species that occur in a meadow have adapted to this over millennia (since the Bronze Age), or only species that are adapted to this use settle in two-tier meadows. Briemle and Ellenberg have drawn up a list of Central European plant species with an indication of how many cuts they can withstand; it is based on the known pointer values .

Actual meadows (ie no grasslands) were traditionally mowed twice. The first cut was in June (depending on the region and warmth, mid to late June), the second cut usually in late August or early September. A third cut (or grazing) in October is also common on very nutrient-rich locations. Care that is based on these values ​​is also recommended for flower meadows. Intensive grasslands that receive high amounts of nitrogen fertilizer, but are used in particular for the production of silage , are mowed up to six times a year in order to be able to optimally utilize the protein-rich cuttings. First cuts are already possible in mid-spring (April). Only a few plant species are adapted to this use. If high-yield grasslands are extensively used (less fertilized, less mowed), the growth becomes overgrown and can then no longer be used as fodder. This should be avoided if the species and varieties of intensive grassland are replaced by better adapted ones.

In traditional agriculture, a single meadow cut in autumn was only carried out on extremely nutrient-poor fens . The cuttings were then not used for feeding, but as litter . Such meadows are therefore called litter meadows .

Cutting technique

A cutting height of 5 to 10 cm favors plant species that do not have their renewal buds on the ground. Lower cutting heights, as is common with modern rotary mowers , partially damage the soil and then lead to the spread of annual species. If the cutting height is very low, plants have to sprout from their roots and grasses that are capable of sprouting are favored.

New planting of flower meadows

Urban "flower meadow" with annuals

The modern field, which is determined by fields and flowering, high-yielding intensive grasslands, is perceived by many as impoverished. Since the relatively high-yielding, flower-rich formations of the fat meadows have become increasingly rare (even the typical smooth oat meadow is included in the red list of endangered vegetation types in the warning list), there have been efforts to create new flower meadows. In the open landscape, particularly threatened vegetation units with many threatened plant species are preferred target objects for nature conservation. In addition, after remodeling and construction work such. B. newly pushed embankments designed as flower meadows. Sometimes they are also created in the course of the so-called interference regulation under the Federal Nature Conservation Act as compensation for an interference in nature. A voluntary initiative that aims to promote flower meadows is the "Blooming Landscape Network"

For the successful creation of a flower meadow, two factors must be considered: The location must be suitable for the desired meadow, and the characteristic species must also be able to reach the area under suitable site conditions. On a previously highly fertilized arable site, it can be done without complex measures, e.g. B. impossible to re-create a species-rich poor meadow. But even if the location would actually be suitable, the desired flower-rich meadow does not necessarily appear on its own. This is due to the fact that the meadow plant species do not always have effective strategies for long-range dispersal and their spontaneous immigration may take centuries; migration speeds of only one to three meters per year are typical, even with a suitable location. In addition, the competition of the existing plant population prevents or delays the immigration of the target species. In the traditional rural cultural landscape, species-rich meadows were so common that their species could usually quickly immigrate to species-poor grass seeds even without special measures. Traditional vegetation science therefore concentrated on the local conditions. Since this no longer applies today, attempts are increasingly being made to accelerate the development by sowing flower meadows.

If a new flower meadow is to be created by sowing, the seeds must be suitable for the location. Unsuitable species are often able to germinate and initially establish themselves, but fail again within a few years due to competition from better adapted species. In addition, there is often a lack of permanent and sustainable care. Many seeds are mowed too late and too seldom. This are competitive with strong nutrient-rich site conditions, tall-growing species have an advantage, often top grasses such as orchard grass and oat grass , or even rejected foreign tall herbs like nettle , creeping thistle and goldenrod .

New plant by sowing hay flowers

The simplest and at the same time most effective method of re-establishing a flower meadow is to spread mowed hay from a species-rich meadow from the surrounding area onto the target area. In order to eliminate the competition of the existing inventory, it is eliminated beforehand, e.g. B. by milling or even pushing off the topsoil. By spreading cuttings from the last preserved species-rich meadows, it is z. B. on the Upper Rhine succeeded in successfully establishing the river valley meadows threatened with extinction in other suitable locations where the species had previously been lost through agricultural amelioration

New plant through commercial seeds

Numerous specialized nurseries now offer meadow flower seeds, either individually or in ready-made mixtures. These are very often used to create new flower meadows. The standard seed mixture RSM 8.1 "Biotope areas" is the most widespread for construction work and publicly funded measures . Other mixtures exist in an almost unmanageable variety. However, their composition is often very similar. These are very species-rich mixtures of species that do not necessarily fit together ecologically. The idea here is that even if the user is ignorant, at least some suitable species should be included. In addition, however, specialized providers also offer more suitable, site-specific mixtures. A method optimized in ten years of field trials was z. B. developed in the Swiss plateau.

On the nature conservation side, the establishment of flower meadows with commercial seeds for nature conservation purposes in the open countryside (ie not in gardens and parks) is often viewed with skepticism. Many expensive measures fail because the adapted use or maintenance, which is essential for success, is not guaranteed. Often, even on nutrient-rich sites, the mowing is done only once and too late. Such a mowing regime is only suitable for low-nitrogen grasslands, so no meadow can be preserved on better soils. Although there are now guidelines with care recommendations, these are rarely observed in practice. It is even more problematic that the types of seed often represent tall "horticultural clans" that can be cultivated well when grown in beds, but are often unsuitable in the open. In addition, the genetic diversity of wild plants is impoverished, and small species adapted to special locations and landscapes are lost. Not infrequently it is not even the game species listed on the label that are sown, but others that look so similar; or species are sown outside of their natural range, which then threaten the adapted clans through hybridization (introgression). In an investigation on embankments in Saxony-Anhalt that were greened for nature conservation purposes, z. B. found Centaurea pannonica subsp. pannonica (sown as meadow knapweed, Centaurea jacea ), Cichorium intybus var. sativum (cultivar, sown as a chicory ), Dianthus giganteus (south-east European carnation, sown as Carthusian carnation Dianthus carthusianorum ), Lotus corniculatus var. sativus (syn.Lotus sativus , Mediterranean - Near Eastern roots, sown as common horn clover ( Lotus corniculatus ). Large numbers of comparable observations are also available elsewhere.

Wildlife of the flower meadows

Many insect species, some of which are highly specialized, use the plant species in the flower meadows to search for nectar. These include many endangered butterfly and hymenoptera species. Since all flowers are suddenly removed after the hay has been cut, such flower visitors benefit from mowing a flower meadow in several sections.

Flower mixes

For some years now, a new method of greening has become popular, in which particularly colorful mixtures are sown, mostly on green spaces and traffic green areas within built-up areas, or as an alternative to flower borders in green spaces. The pioneer of this method was the Mössingen city ​​gardener Dieter Felger, whose mixture known as "Mössinger Sommer" is now also commercially available; there are now large numbers of comparable mixtures. With these summer flower mixtures, also known as flower meadows, the focus is on the aesthetic aspect. As a rule, grasses are not sown. In the mix, the exact species composition of which is seldom disclosed, ornamental flowers mostly of exotic origin dominate.

Although the species composition is usually only given in extracts, the results show, for example, the following species in the mixtures:

• white flowering: ribbon flowers , scented stone rich
• yellow flowers : dyer's chamomile , marigold , girl's eyes , California poppy , zinnias , cockade flowers , hussar button
• red, blue and purple flowering: cornflower , convolvulus tricolor , borage , cosmos and other Kosmeen , sky blue morning glory , mallow , Linum grandiflorum , Ausdauernder Lein , Ordinary Nachtviole , Sweetpea , oregano , Ladybug poppy and other poppy species Clarkia Amoena , Moroccan toadflax , bird eye , Atlas flower , garden delphinium , Antirrhinum majus , Buschmalven

literature

• Gottfried Briemle, Conrad Fink: Meadows, pastures and other grassland. Recognize, determine, protect biotopes , Hirzel, Stuttgart / Leipzig 1993, ISBN 3-777611-905 (= Claus-Peter Hutter (Hrsg.): Biotop determination books , volume 1).
• Dirk Kauter: “Sauergras” and “Wegbreit”? The development of meadows in Central Europe between 1500 and 1900 . Heimbach, Stuttgart 2002, ISBN 3-935380-05-4 (= reports of the Institute for Landscape and Plant Ecology at the University of Hohenheim, Supplement No. 14, also the dissertation University of Hohenheim 2001).
• Reinhard Witt, Bernd Dietrich: Meadows of flowers: layout, care, practical examples; with meadow plants lexicon , BLV, Munich / Vienna / Zurich 1996, ISBN 3-405-14867-7 .
• Gotthard Wolf: The flower meadow as a community ; Evaluation and information services for food, agriculture and forestry; Bonn 1996, ISBN 3-89661-222-0 (= AID information service , volume 1155).

Web links

Commons : Meadow of flowers  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Wiktionary: Blumenwiese  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Wiktionary: Wildflower Meadow  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

• Frequent seeds in North Rhine-Westphalia. Bochumer Botanischer Verein eV The site is intended to give an overview of frequently used native and non-native species and to serve as an aid to identification.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ on the origin cf. z. B. Dirk Kauter: Sauergras and Wegbreit. The development of meadows in Central Europe between 1500 and 1900. Heimbach Verlag, 2002. ISBN 3935380054
2. ^ Sieglinde & Lothar Nitsche: Extensive use of grassland. Neumann Verlag, 1994. ISBN 3740201495
3. ↑ Hartmut Dierschke & Gottfried Briemle: Cultivated grassland: meadows, pastures and related herbaceous vegetation. Ulmer Verlag 2002. ISBN 3800138166
4. ↑ Gottfried Briemle: Recommendations for the maintenance and management of biotope and extensive grassland. Landinfo 2/2007: 16-22.
5. ↑ cf. Ernst Klapp: Grassland vegetation and location. Parey Publishing House, 1965.
6. ↑ Hartmut Dierschke (1997): Meadow Foxtail (Alopecurus pratensis) meadows in Central Europe. Osnabrück Natural Science Communications Volume 23: 95-107.
7. ↑ Gottfried Briemle, Heinz Ellenberg: On the mowing compatibility of grassland plants. Possibilities for the practical application of pointer values. In: Natur und Landschaft 69 (4), 1994, pp. 139–147.
8. ↑ Reinhard Witt, Bernd Dittrich: Meadows of flowers. Plant, maintenance, practical examples. BLV Verlag, Munich / Vienna / Zurich 1996. ISBN 3-405-14867-7 p.66
9. ↑ Entry in the BfN's Floraweb
10. ↑ Network blooming landscape: Homepage
11. ↑ cf. z. B. Heinz Ellenberg: Vegetation of Central Europe with the Alps from an ecological, dynamic and historical perspective. 5th edition, 1996. Ulmer Verlag ISBN 978-3-8252-8104-5 , chap. V Forage meadows, litter meadows and lawns on roadsides, p. 784
12. ↑ Norbert Hölzel (2011): Species enrichment through mowing transfer. Nature in NRW 2/2011: 22-24 download ( Memento of the original from April 15, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 2.9 MB) 
13. ↑ Norbert Hölzel & Annette Otte (2003): Restoration of a species-rich flood meadow by topsoil removal and diaspore transfer with plant material. Applied Vegetation Science 6: 131-140.
14. ↑ Andreas Bosshard (2000): Flower-rich hay meadows from arable land and intensive meadows. A guide to renaturation in agricultural practice. Conservation and landscape planning 32 (6): 161–171.
15. ^ Gottfried Briemle (2004): Landscape ecologically sensible minimum maintenance of species-rich grassland and its success-oriented evaluation. In: Karin Reiter, Andreas Schmidt, Ursula Stratmann (edit.): "... Use of grassland not before June 15 ..." Sense and nonsense of officially prescribed fixed dates in agriculture. Documentation of a conference of the Federal Agency for Nature Conservation and the Nature Conservation Center Hessen (NZH) in Wetzlar on September 16/17, 2003. BfN scripts 124: 33–56. PDF
16. ↑ Sabine Tischew & Horst Lange (2010): Recommendations for nature conservation-appropriate management of grasslands of habitat types 6440, 6510 and 6520 in Saxony-Anhalt. Published by the state administration office for the state of Saxony-Anhalt.
17. ↑ Dieter Frank & Heino John (2007): Colorful meadows of flowers - increase in biodiversity or violation of nature conservation law? Messages from the floristic mapping Saxony-Anhalt (Halle 2007) 12: 31-45
18. ↑ AID evaluation and information service for food, agriculture and forestry