Ben Vanheems of Berks, Bucks and Oxon wildlife trust welcomes the county flower

Recent visitors to Oxford’s meadows will certainly have noticed the spectacular wash of purple courtesy of Oxfordshire’s official county flower, the snake’s head fritillary. This charismatic spring-flowering bulb can be seen nodding delicately en masse in the meadows at Magdalen College and Iffley, offering a breathtaking sight.

Snake’s head fritillary flowers are truly beguiling. Look closely at the purple lanterns and you see they are intricately chequered with a speckling of pale silver, bearing a striking resemblance to their namesake. An almost glowing white form breaks up the sea of purple and the extra observant may even spot the occasional double-headed bloom.

Work by BBOWT at Iffley Meadows to boost Britain’s only native fritillary plant is yielding results. Numbers have risen from 500 in 1983, when the trust took over management of the Oxford City Council-owned meadow, to stabilise at 40-60,000 in recent years. Last week saw the 34th annual snake’s-head fritillary count, a stocktake completed by a line of volunteers tiptoeing gingerly through the meadow as they count. Bamboo canes held between the volunteers avoid double counting, ensuring each person accounts for only those flowers appearing beneath ‘their’ cane. Tallies of each sweep are then added up to give the overall result.

Fiona Danks, BBOWT trustee and director of funder TOE2, the Trust for Oxfordshire’s Environment, relished the chance to take part. “I’ve known about the fritillaries here for years. It’s been such a glorious day and the signs so far are they haven’t been too badly affected by the flooding.”

Fresh-off-the-meadow results from the count bear this out, revealing a remarkable jump in population to a record 84,190 individual plants despite the site sitting under water for up to eight weeks earlier this year.

Achieving a steady population isn’t easy. Complex management of the site has led to favourable ground conditions for what is now a scarce flower, as BBOWT’s reserves ecology officer and count leader Colin Williams explains. “Iffley Meadows is traditionally managed through a combination of a hay cut in mid-July followed by grazing by cattle during autumn and early winter. Removal of the cut hay controls excess nutrient levels while grazing keeps species in check that would otherwise compete.

“The snake’s-head fritillary is found in damp, lowland meadows. But while the ground needs to be damp it shouldn’t stand waterlogged for extensive periods, especially during summer when plants are setting seed and bulbs multiplying.”

The wet summer of 2007 saw the Thames flood Iffley Meadows at the height of the growing season. This led competitive rushes and sedges to overwhelm other plants, stalling the snake’s-head fritillaries and reducing populations to a recent low of 32,000 by 2012. Extensive digging out of ditches and pollarding of on-site willows, made possible by a grant of £2,226 from TOE2 with funds from Grundon Waste Management, has since allowed our county flower to further colonise the southern end of the 24-hectare hay meadow, resulting in this year’s sustained recovery.

“We can’t trumpet success just yet,” cautions Colin. “We must recognise some areas are better than others and apply what we’ve learnt from areas of the meadow that are improving to other parts.”

BBOWT is now seeking funding for the installation of additional fencing and improved access to the middle of the site. This allows hay cuts and targeted grazing, bringing a particularly stubborn area of rush and sedge back under contro.

While little can be done about the weather, ongoing work by BBOWT should see Iffley Meadows continue to dazzle for generations to come.

Watch a report by Roger Finn on the Iffley Meadows snake’s head fritillary count on BBC South Today. The programme will be aired one Thursday over the next few weeks.