Levallymore ASSI

Levallymore is a series of fields with species-rich grassland communities rich in old meadow indicators. It is particularly important because of the extent of species-rich dry grassland present on the site and the presence of some locally notable plant species. Species-rich dry grassland is a particularly rare resource in NI and is usually not found in larger field parcels. Levallymore is the largest area of species-rich dry grassland located during two years of Phase I survey in this area of South Armagh.

The grassland communities at Levallymore range from moderately species-rich swards to areas with abundant orchids and herbs. Swards all tend to be grass dominated with frequent common bent, crested dog's-tail and sweet vernal-grass. Associated meadow species include herbs such as eyebright and common bird's-foot trefoil. More species-rich swards contain many meadow indicators such as yellow-rattle, eyebright, common knapweed, pill sedge and greater bird's-foot trefoil.

In addition, Levallymore is notable for the collection and relative abundance of the hemiparasitic species ( a plant that is parasitic under natural conditions and is also photosynthetic to some degree ) eyebright, yellow-rattle and lousewort The orchids greater butterfly-orchid and spotted-orchids are abundant in places. Field scabious, field gentian and the grassland fungus Hygrocybe intermedia are all notable.

Site Related Documents

Site map (.PDF 918Kb), Citation document (.PDF 133Kb) and Views about Management document (.PDF 63Kb).