About the reserve

This reserve is one of the best wildflower sites in Nottinghamshire with more than 230 species so far recorded. Grassland plants include large numbers of meadow saxifrage and great burnet. Some 20 species of butterfly have been recorded, with gatekeeper and small skipper.

The wetland areas have declined markedly since the 1980s, but a cleared marsh area has increased numbers of cuckoo flower, ragged robin, fool’s watercress and water figwort. A population of southern marsh orchids still flourishes around the site as well as hemp agrimony, despite the decline in water levels. Open water is only found in winter months.

There is a wide variety of grasses, sedges and rushes with more than 60 recorded. The site also contains a large number of tree species ranging from hawthorn to oak and many species of fungi, mosses and lichens.