Observing and recording Heene Cemetery’s biodiversity over the last half-decade has illustrated nature’s complexity. At every turn, the detail is fascinating, no less so than in the case of grass and grasses. Unlike the turf found in most gardens or parks, Heene’s varieties of grasses run to a surprising 18. Their names chime a mini, rural roll-call: alongside the bromes, bents and fescues are Cock’s-foot, Crested Dog’s-tail and the ubiquitous Yorkshire-fog. Only the sublime but red-listed Quaking Grass is uncommon. This variety of shapes (erect, creeping and tussocky), colours (green, purple, pink and cream) and textures (bristly, feathery or hairy) attracts wildlife in abundance. While we walk on the stuff, butterflies and moths lay their eggs on it, grasshoppers eat it, birds feed off its seeds, and bees, beetles, spiders and reptiles gain some form of nourishment from it or have it as their habitat. Grass also stores carbon, regulates water flow, enriches soil and, through photosynthesis, converts carbon dioxide to oxygen (and at a much higher rate than trees). To imagine a world without grass (or trees) is to conjure up a dystopia.
Some of these grasses will better support generalists that don’t mind what’s on the menu. But there will also be specialists that absolutely need this variety. To encourage butterflies, think not just of which flowers they prefer, but also of which grasses their larvae prefer. The airborne chequerboard that is the Marbled White butterfly (pictured) may indeed sip nectar from the purple crowns of Knapweeds, but before they emerge as adults they need the support of different grasses. The larvae of Gatekeeper butterflies favour a similar menu of five different grasses. Common Blues (pictured) will visit your garden if the lawn is allowed to grow a little wild, and the alluring adult Meadow Grasshoppers feed on their own preferred stalks; their nymphs hatch in April, with adults emerging in June and remaining active often until November. The bulk of the animal kingdom has a set of preferences; they’ve been refining them for millennia.
Some of these creatures are sufficiently photogenic that we take them to our hearts. Butterflies with their intricate wing tracery and their uncanny ability to set sail diagonally across the stiffest of breezes are prime recipients of our endearment. Making our turfs more varied in the hope of supporting them is one thing. Let’s not forget that they also serve a different purpose higher up the food chain, with birds being the most obvious predator. Without this array of insect fodder, many birds would not survive. (Of the various birds that visit the cemetery—and any other green space or garden in our town—15 are on the red or amber list of the IUCN Birds of Conservation Concern). Grass supports insects and these, in turn, support birds and reptiles.
As the Heene Cemetery species count passes the 750 mark, it’s a good moment to take stock of what this means. Eighteen grasses are included with the 228 flowering plants. Alongside them are 26 arachnids, 39 birds, 65 butterflies and moths, 84 fungi, 33 invertebrates, 237 insects, 6 mammals, 36 non-flowering plants, 2 reptiles and one solitary amphibian. It sounds a lot.
In truth, these numbers are so much less than they would have been 148 years ago when the cemetery was first created from meadowland. In 1877 the industrial revolution would have been underway for over a century. Two rounds of legislation had by then already been passed to help reduce air pollution. Back then, hedgerows had not started to be grubbed up and the dramatic decline in meadowland was not yet underway; that accelerated in the 20th century partly because alternatives to winter feed meant that hay crops had less value.
Talk to anyone who remembers the summer skies of their youth and how swifts appeared in May in increasingly dramatic numbers the further back in time one recalls. Ask grandparents what their experience was of windscreen bug-splats. They’ll also tell you how moths crowded round a bedside light when they left a window open on a summer’s night . . . or how clouds of butterflies drifted upwards as they walked through waist-high meadow grass. Nature does indeed need your help—and you don’t need an acre of cemetery or a wildlife site to provide it. Grow pollinator-friendly plants. Allow grasses to grow long where you can (then cut them seasonally), and allow them to choose where they want to grow. A bit of managed untidiness is a vital gift to our shared natural world.
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Managing long grass areas |
Marbled White (Melanargia galathea) |
Common Blue (Polyommatus icarus) |
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Although Heene Cemetery’s grasses and plants are allowed to grow long and flower, some areas are strimmed twice a year as if they are meadows:
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| Flight period: early June – late-August Larvae feed on: Red Fescue grass Caterpillars feed on grasses: Sheep’s Fescue, Cock’s-foot, Tor-grass and Yorkshire Fog | In highly urban areas, gardens with long grass had, on average, 18% greater butterfly abundance than gardens with no long grass. (Butterfly Conservation, February 2025) |
[This article first appear in the July edition of Inside Worthing Magazine (page 22).]
Written by Rob Tomlinson