Increasing floristic diversity in grassland: the effects of management regime and provenance on species introduction Original Research Article

Concerns over recent losses of floristic diversity in British grasslands have led to a new impetus to recreate species-rich pastures. However, such programmes often require the active introduction of wildflower seed or plants to achieve rapid increases in diversity. Methods need to be developed for the successful establishment of desirable species into existing species-poor swards and the implications of using different seed provenances need to be considered. The establishment of five common forb species were compared, each represented by two provenances, sown into a range of swards each receiving different management regimes. For each species, one provenance was collected locally and the other was of non-local, commercially-obtained, provenance. Two years after sowing, the unfertilised sward management with two cuts per year followed by aftermath grazing showed the greatest seedling establishment; that with cutting alone showed the least, even less than the management receiving fertiliser inputs and continuous grazing. Seedling survivorship was related more to sward management than to fine-scale sward composition. Within some species there were significant differences in survival between provenances. The importance of sward management and species provenance in grassland restoration programmes are discussed.