A rare plant, the Cotswold pennycress, is a little less rare this year thanks to stone quarrying in the Cotswolds.

Quarrying has created the ideal environment for the plant, botanically known as Thlaspi perfoliatum, 10,000 seeds of which were taken from Huntsman\'s Quarry last year to establish a new community in Natural Stone Market Ltd\'s Grange Hill Quarry, from which Cotswold walling stone is produced for housing developments.

The self-eroding mounds of scalpings around the edge of the quarry, consisting of ungraded ooltic limestone and soil, are just the sort of environment most enjoyed by the pennycress. Sowing was confined to the ridge crests and tops of slopes with suitable aspect. And this spring has seen 600 of the rare plants sprouting.

The project to plant the pennycress involved Tim Wilkins from Plantlife International, a conservation charity, James Byrne, the Local Biodiversity Action Plan Officer for Gloucestershire, and Roger and Matthew Fulford, who operate Grange Hill Quarry. English Nature have also been involved.