Plants | tunstallhills

Plants:

6 Orchid species can be found on the Hills at various times of the year: Early Purple, Common Spotted, Northern Marsh, Twayblade, Bee and Frog Orchids. Some are harder to find than others but, if you come along to our WIldflower Walk (see link above), you may be lucky enough to see five of the six.
Some other plants of note include Lesser Meadow Rue, Hairy Rock Cress and Adder's Tongue Fern.
Pride of place, botanically speaking, goes not to any one plant but to an association of species, in the form of Magnesian Limestone Grassland which includes the beautiful Blue Moor Grass (sadly not in flower at the time of our walk: it flowers in March), Salad Burnet, Small Scabious, Quaking Grass and others. There is very little MAG Limestone Grassland left in England and 75% of what there is lies here in the North East. Not much remains on Tunstall Hills and what there is needs careful management and protection.