Can the cloning saxifrage outwit our herbicides?
by Phil Gates from on (#BN6X)
Thorsgill Beck, Teesdale To 16th century travellers meadow saxifrage would have been unremarkable, today it is a window into a lost landscape
Five centuries ago the White Canons, who worshipped in the Premonstratensian abbey, whose ruins sit high above the bend in the Tees at Egglestone, would have been familiar with the view that appeared as we crossed the pack-horse bridge.
The pasture had buttercups and another flower that I couldn't immediately identify. It was only when we stood among the densely packed drifts of its white blooms that it dawned on me that this was meadow saxifrage, in greater profusion than I had ever seen.
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