Highlights: Orchids & other flowers Access: View from the paths cut in May Perrys Guide: 20 C2

Le Pré du Galet, the field furthest from the road

Aerial Photo

The one nearest the road is privately owned and leased to La Société, the two north from that are owned by La Société, and all three have been managed by them since 1984. They are treated as the other orchid fields in that they are cut for hay in late July/August, and may be grazed after this until the winter when they become too wet.

As with the other Orchid fields in Les Vicheries, the Hemlock Water Dropwort needs some control, and is cut by hand every few years, as necessary, or it will take over.

They have a good diversity of flora with at least three species of Orchid, many other wet meadow plant species, and a good population of the rare fern Common Adder's Tongue, occurring in all three meadows. There is only one other site for this at present; in the nearby Colin Best Reserve where it is much less accessible. The strange fruiting-spike of this can be seen best in May. These meadow to the west of the reserve was the last known site of Yellow Rattle, Rhinanthus minor, in the island in 1985, but this had disappeared by 1990. The meadows also contain many species of grasses, sedges and rushes, some of which are quite rare elsewhere in the island. Paths are cut around the perimeter of the fields in May, so that visitors can admire the flowers more easily.  

Common Adder's Tongue Ophioglossum vulgatum	Tufted Vetch Vicia cracca
Amphibious Bistort Persicaria amphibia	Great Willowherb Epilobium hirsutum
Greater Bird's-foot Trefoil Lotus pedunculatus	False Fox-sedge Carex otrubae
Distant Sedge Carex distans, scarce in Guernsey	Galingale or Han Cyperus longus
Surveying the flora in Le Galle - the middle field	The field next to the road