Empingham Marshy Meadows is a 14 hectare biological

Site of Special Scientific Interest A Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) in Great Britain or an Area of Special Scientific Interest (ASSI) in the Isle of Man and Northern Ireland is a conservation designation denoting a protected area in the United Kingdom and Isle of ...

north of

Empingham Empingham is a village in the county of Rutland in the East Midlands of England. The population of the civil parish was 815 at the 2001 census including Horn and increasing to 880 at the 2011 census. It lies close to the dam of Rutland Water an ...

Rutland Rutland () is a ceremonial county and unitary authority in the East Midlands, England. The county is bounded to the west and north by Leicestershire, to the northeast by Lincolnshire and the southeast by Northamptonshire. Its greatest len ...

. This site in the valley of the North Brook has a complex geological structure and diverse habitats, including grassland and

base-rich In ecology, base-richness is the level of Base (chemistry), chemical bases in water or soil, such as calcium or magnesium ions. Many organisms prefer base-rich environments. Chemical bases are alkalis, hence base-rich environments are either pH, ...

marsh and fen. Flora in wetter areas include

adder's tongue fern ''Ophioglossum'', the adder's-tongue ferns, is a genus of about 50 species of ferns in the family Ophioglossaceae. The name ''Ophioglossum'' comes from the Greek meaning "snake-tongue".

marsh marigold ''Caltha palustris'', known as marsh-marigold and kingcup, is a small to medium size perennial herbaceous plant of the buttercup family, native to marshes, fens, ditches and wet woodland in temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere. It flower ...

and

ragged robin ''Silene flos-cuculi'' (syn. ''Lychnis flos-cuculi''), commonly called ragged-robin, is a perennial herbaceous plant in the family Caryophyllaceae. This species is native to Europe and Asia, where it is found along roads and in wet meadows and p ...

. Public footpaths from Empingham go through the meadows.

References

{{SSSIs Rutland Sites of Special Scientific Interest in Rutland