Positive experiences:
- The locally typical plant species were found everywhere (in addition to the species of grass seed mixtures that had been previously sown and species with wide tolerance range that are almost ubiquitous).
- Protected species have appeared in several places.
- The best performing areas are those where mowing has been less frequent for some years and where very few people walk through the areas.
- The number of plant species found in bee pastures has at least doubled, and in some cases quadrupled, compared to the control areas.
- More and more pollinator species have appeared.
Negative experiences:
- The shaded sites did not work; some of them have been dropped from the programme.
- Due to public reactions, sites and treatments had to be modified.
- Major public use and trampling were bad.
- One of the biggest concerns, Hordeum murinum, which is dangerous to dogs, was not growing in the bee pastures, as they are characteristic in disturbed, trampled areas.
- Meanwhile, the Wildflower Budapest programme is receiving positive professional and public feedback.
This year the designated areas will be slightly modified, leaving out the worse performing sites and including some more promising sites in the programme, which will still only cover 4.5% of the 6 million square meters of mown green spaces in the capital. The mowing regime will be refined and new approaches will be applied, such as transferring hay and collected seeds from better performing areas to areas in need of support. In order to get more and more accurate data on wildflower meadows,
FŐKERT and the
Centre for Ecological Research will continue the activities with sampling and monitoring of insects and plants.
Read the article (in Hungarian)
here.
Photo: Wildflower Budapest - Species richness in paired fields: bee pastures (unmown) and control areas (mown)