Snakeshead fritillaries of Ducklington Mead SSSI

On Sunday 19^th April Ducklington Mead was due to be opened up to the public for Fritillary Sunday, an annual event where visitors can walk through the meadow and admire the Snakeshead fritillaries. Unfortunately, the event was cancelled this year but we’re sharing some photographs from previous years… we’ll have to wait until 2021 to see the real thing!

Spring 2018

Ducklington Mead lies just south of Witney and is the only meadow of its type in the Lower Windrush Valley. It is designated a SSSI (Site of Special Scientific Interest) both for its rare hay meadow plant community and its population of snakeshead fritillary.

 

Spring 2019

The rare snakeshead fritillaries at Ducklington Mead are only found on a handful of sites in the UK. They tend to be associated with meadows as they need to flower and set seed in order to survive. The traditional hay cut in early July enables this to happen; they do not survive in areas subjected to grazing in spring.

This photograph shows the meadow later in the season - Summer 2003