For a third year, a road verge in Cropston has been left to grow over the summer, with the aim of encouraging biodiversity. Peter Smith reports on the changes seen. More...

The grass was mown in September and now the clean-up squad have moved in: woodlice, slugs and fungi, which all feed at least partly on decaying material.  As the RHS has recently been reminding us, slugs are biodiversity too!
The main change to the verge this year was the removal of the large, wooden planter.  That left a couple of square metres of bare soil and it was interesting to see which plants took advantage of this vacant habitat.  The early arrivals were not – as you might have expected – plants that were already present in the verge but opportunists that might be familiar as garden weeds.  First on the scene was Ivy-Leaved Speedwell: the fifth species of speedwell recorded on the verge.  It was closely followed by Garlic Mustard and an unidentified species of Willowherb.  A Sycamore seedling also soon appeared, which might have prompted a dilemma if it showed signs of growing into a tree, but it vanished almost as quickly.  Several of the other plants that arrived during 2024 were garden escapes – Aquilegia, Red Valerian, Californian Poppy, Opium Poppy and Purple Toadflax – but there were also native plants such as Self-heal, Celandine and Meadow Buttercup.

Insects noted for the first time included Meadow Brown butterfly, Field Grasshopper, Red Soldier Beetle and the charming, badger-snouted Bishop’s Mitre Shieldbug.  The Swollen-thighed Beetle (Oedemera nobilis) has been a visitor each summer but it’s more gym-phobic cousin Oedemera lurida has now also put in an appearance.  One insect that was hardly recorded in the past but is suddenly turning up all over the county is a fly called Botanophila.  Its grubs feed inside the flower-heads of Ragwort and can easily be detected by the ball of frothy bubbles that they produce.

Galls are fascinating!  It seems extraordinary that a plant can be coerced into growing in a quite abnormal way, entirely to benefit a different organism.  This year, several of the Germander Speedwell plants on the verge produced hairy tufts at their tips, where their leaf buds should be, to create a home for the larvae of a tiny midge.  Creeping Cinquefoil is an attractive plant with five-part leaves and yellow flowers which grows by the fence.  Late in the year, we found it had developed swollen nodules, like miniature tubers, which are due to a gall-causing wasp.  

Across all types of plants and animals, the number of species now recorded on the verge has reached 124.  There is a dedicated page on the Naturespot website, which includes a list of all the species, with links for you to find out more about them.  Do visit and add your own sightings - http://www.naturespot.org.uk/Cropston_Leicester_Road_Verge

Leicestershire Urban Verge Wildlife Project: https://www.naturespot.org.uk/verge_wildlife