We recently joined forces with the City of Edinburgh Council to do some removal of an Invasive Non-Native Species plant at Cramond sand dunes.
Japanese rose, rosa rugosa, was introduced to Britain in the 18th century as a plant for formal gardens. It has since spread and can often be found in coastal areas. It sends out long underground rhizomes to spread, which form a dense network which destabilises the sand dune and is hard to remove. It out-competes other native species. As such, the City of Edinburgh Council runs a programme of removal, and we joined them to help with removal at Cramond. Many thanks to all the volunteers who came along for our two-day session in the (mainly) sunshine.
Passers-by might have noticed 3 exclusion zones fenced off on the Cramond sand dunes. These areas have had the natural grasses and plants worn away as people have walked across them. We are jointly working on an experiment to see how well these species could return – we are leaving one fenced-off area natural to see how quickly the grass comes back, one area has been seeded with a coastal species native wildflower seed mix, and another has been planted with wildflower plug plants grown at a wildflower nursery in Granton. Species include hardy coastal flowers such as thrift, sea campion and kidney vetch.
Keep an eye out for the signage in the area and to see how are plants are growing. We are looking forward to seeign a riot of colours and textures that are great to look at and great food and habitat for wildlife in the near future!
