Bid to revive fortunes of rare butterfly

The National Trust will plant thousands of violets on the Shropshire Hills

Thousands of violets will be planted across the Shropshire Hills in a bid to help a rare species of butterfly.

The National Trust will plant 20,000 marsh violets to provide a food source for caterpillars of the small pearl-bordered fritillary butterfly.

It is hoped the 400 patches of 50 plants will attract more of the species, which has undergone severe decline across England.

It is part of a project to connect habitats across the landscape in the Shropshire Hills, immortalised as the "blue remembered hills" in AE Housman's A Shropshire Lad.

Caroline Uff, an ecological consultant to the National Trust, said new areas could start to be recolonised by the butterflies within a couple of years.

"Currently, these striking butterflies are hanging on in fragmented colonies," she said.

"Through this new mass planting and habitat restoration the plan is to give these butterflies the space to move and flourish.”

Volunteers will plant 400 patches of 50 marsh violets

Funding of £270,000 from government agency Natural England's species recovery fund is being used towards the planting and other work to support rare wildlife.

The first clumps of marsh violets are being planted during spring, with the rest to follow in the autumn.

Charlie Bell, stepping stones project manager for the National Trust, said: "Marsh violet propagation and planting of this scale and ambition has never been attempted in the UK before.

"We are hugely grateful to our volunteers who are so enthusiastically taking up the challenge to not only help in the mass planting but also with future surveys to track the success of the work.”

According to Butterfly Conservation, the small pearl-bordered fritillary was once very widespread but has declined by 91% in England since 1982.