Iffley Meadows: Fewer snake's-head fritillaries in annual count

The purple bloom is the county flower of Oxfordshire.

An annual count of a wild plant at a nature reserve is the lowest recorded for six years.

The survey of the snake's head fritillary at Iffley Meadows, by the Berks, Bucks and Oxon Wildlife Trust, saw 45,734 purple blooms tallied up.

The trust said although the total was the lowest since 2016 it was "still within the annual fluctuation in numbers that you would expect".

The trust said the highest number counted was more than 80,000.

The annual count of the flower, which is the county flower of Oxfordshire, has been held in the meadows each spring since 1983 when the trust said just 500 flowers could be found.

Thousands of purple blooms at Iffley Meadows are totted up by volunteers

Colin Williams, ecology officer in charge of the count at the trust, said: "The snake's-head fritillary is a great indicator of how healthy this habitat is, so by counting their number each year we can get a good idea of how the meadows are doing.

"This helps us to manage them not just for these flowers but for all the other species that live here."

He added numbers "vary each year due to flooding events of the previous 24 months, the weather just before and during the flowering season and the impact of browsing deer".

The flowers are expected to be at their peak for the next two weeks, with the trust encouraging people to visit the meadows to "see the spectacle" over Easter.