Where have all the flowers gone?

Adapted from an old Ukrainian tune, its message as an anti-war anthem was particularly effective because of an especially catchy melody.

The song's not played so much these days, but at one time it was all over the airwaves like a rash. Usually the version by the Kingston Trio.

Nearly half a century later that seismic opening line appeared on top of a press release from The Game Conservancy Trust of all people.

It brought effectively to my notice, at least, a mostly unreported war that is going on in the British countryside - the battle to save our wild flowers.

In every county, including Worcestershire, common wild flowers are growing scarcer. The worst-hit counties have lost on average one native flower every year, throughout the 20th Century.

To date, the losses are largely "local" and most species in decline are not yet nationally endangered.

Fortunately Worcestershire has not yet suffered any extinctions, but it has shown a 36 per cent loss of scarce species since 1970.

This summer, Plantlife International and the Game Conservancy Trust, two of the UK's leading conservation charities, have both focused on one particular group of threatened wild plants - arable flowers.

These have been with us since the dawn of agriculture, but over the last 25 years arable "weeds" have shown the greatest decline of any group of British plants.

Plants such as corn buttercup and corn marigold were a familiar site to field recorders in the 1950s, but are now scarce.

Several of the arable plants have declined so much, they have been selected as UK Biodiversity Action Plan priority species, including favourites such as the bright blue cornflower.

Although a familiar ingredient in many "wildflower meadow" seed mixes, paradoxically it is on the critical list in the wild.

Others such as corncockle and darnel are now virtually extinct in Britain, although both were locally common until the early 20th Century.

According to The New Atlas of the British and Irish Flora, some areas of Worcestershire have lost between 19-48 arable plant species, some of the highest statistics for the country.

Why has this happened?

The answer, as to many things, lies in the soil.

The British countryside has lost many of its distinctive arable flowers because of the massive demands placed upon the arable sector since the middle of the 20th century.

Another world war and a rapidly increasing population have led to an all consuming demand for food and wild flowers have been the losers.

They have been eliminated by improved seed-cleaning techniques, killed by herbicides, and out-competed by new crop varieties grown with intense applications of fertilizer.

But fortunately the future for rare arable plants looks brighter following the recent shake-up of farming subsidy schemes both in this country and Europe.

The Government's Entry Level Stewardship scheme, due to be introduced next year, will pay farmers to manage their land to encourage the development of arable plant communities.

Under the ELSS, farmers will be paid £30 per hectare for carrying out specific environmental management on their farm.

Techniques the Game Conservancy Trust has developed for wild game birds have also proved to be the saving of arable plants and many of these ideas, such as conservation headlands, are now incorporated in the new government subsidy schemes.

"Farmers and landowners can now help to increase the number of arable plants on their land," said Peter Thompson, field adviser with the GCT, "and with the new subsidy schemes coming into force next year, they will be paid to do so.

"But to benefit from these schemes farmers need to firstly identify any rare plants on their land so these can be included in new stewardship applications.

"The perfect time to look is after harvesting, when fields are stubble.

"Farmers need to look in field margins and also in less obvious areas such as gateways, the corners of fields or at the foot of telegraph poles."

Once flowers have been identified, the area needs to be cultivated to promote further growth.

"Arable flowers, like all other plants, need to be conserved and managed, and the Game Conservancy Trust can provide advice to ensure that these plants thrive," Peter added.

This summer, Plantlife International launched its UK Arable Plants Survey to encourage farmers to do just this.

Their full colour identification booklet lists 26 species, ranging from the well-known, such as common poppy, to the rare, such as broad-fruited corn-salad, to help farmers identify what exactly they have growing on their land.

The results of the survey will be used to map the UK's most important areas for arable plants in a report published next year.

When will they ever learn?

It looks as though they have. Just in time.

n The Game Conservancy Trust has published two free leaflets on managing set-aside and guidelines for the management of field margins for the benefit of wildlife and rare arable plants. The Trust can also provide advice on the range of new Government Agri-environment Schemes. For further information contact: Peter Thompson, the Game Conservancy Trust, Telephone: 01425 652381, mobile: 07710 344340 or email: pthompson@gct.org.uk or log on to www.gct.org.uk.