About the reserve

Buzzing and bustling with insect life

If you know your calcareous grassland species from your acid and neutral grassland species, or you’re keen to learn, there’s no finer place to compare these side by side. And if you don’t really care what all that means but like seeing how different plants grow in different places, and enjoy seeing an array of beautiful flowers, then look no further than the steep limestone bank, flat grassland, and wetter and drier areas of Maltby Low Common.

It's part of a network of commons on the south-east side of Maltby, and you can enjoy a circular walk of around 2 miles to Maltby Far Common. Both are great for grassland flowers in later spring and summer and host a wide variety of insects – well over 400 species have been recorded, including many species of butterfly and moth, such as dark green fritillaries, brimstones, orange-tips, small coppers, walls, heaths, cinnabars and silver Ys. Just over the railway line, Maltby Wood is full of woodland flowers in the spring, and can be incorporated as part of a longer walk.

Where the wildflowers grow

On the south-west part of the common, typical limestone grassland species grow, including the declining grass-of-Parnassus, field scabious and small scabious. The flat area below the bank includes species more typical of fen meadow.

Other plants to find on the reserve include marsh valerian, mat grass, tufted hair-grass, heather, pepper saxifrage, meadow thistle, sneezewort, lousewort and aspen, along with glaucous, oval and carnation sedges. From June, look for common spotted orchids flowering in abundance.

In spring, cuckoos, whitethroats and garden warblers join resident species including buzzards, kestrels and barn owls, with parties of foraging tits and thrushes in the winter