What habitat is this?

Did you know you can tell the type of habitat you are in by identifying the plants you see around you? Certain plants grow only in certain places, these are called indicator species. Other plants are not fussy in where they grow, they grow in a lot of places.

Here are some examples of habitats and what species typically grow there:

Acidic soil/bog-land: Heath milkwort, heather, heath, cat’s ear, gorse

Grassland: Yarrow, clover, buttercup, lesser trefoil, a lot of types of grass, daisy

Grassland habitat with plantain, grass and buttercups

Hedgerow: Traveller’s joy, honeysuckle, elder, brambles, cleavers.

Sandy soils: Wild carrot, lady’s bedstraw, Common Bird’s-foot Trefoil, Common Restharrow.

Near the sea: Sea-rocket, buckhorn plantain, wild carrot, Spear-leaved Orache, Sea Mayweed, Sea beet.

Sandy seaside habitat with sea mayweed and seabeet in the background

On footpaths: Pineappleweed, plantain, groundsel

On walls: A variety of ferns, ivy leaved toadflax, pellitory-of-the-wall.

Plants growing on a wall on a bridge in Milltown. Ivy, ivy-leaved toadflax and red valerian

Of course this is only a general indication. Everything in science has its exceptions. For example, I have only ever found wild carrot near the sea in Ireland. This is because this is the most common sandy area in Ireland. When I was on holidays in The Netherlands I saw wild carrot everywhere. This is because a lot of the soils there are sandy. I had never realised this before, I thought it was an indicator species for seaside, but it is actually one for sandy soils.

Roadside verge in the my hometown in The Netherlands. Lots of sandy soil indicator species.

So if you find 3 or more ‘indicator species’ you can generally tell what habitat you are in. I did so when I was giving my last walk on Roche’s Hill, Killiney. The upper part contained species like cat’s ear, gorse, bell heather, sheep’s bit and bracken. From this I concluded the soil must be acidic.

Roche’s Hill with gorse

Roche’s Hill. Bracken along a path

I would love for you to have a go at this and let me know how you get on.