Badgeworth Nature Reserve, Gloucestershire

Badgeworth near Cheltenham was once the smallest nature reserve in the country, a designation now held by Hethel Old Thorn in Norfolk which contains a single tree, area 0.06 acres. The Badgeworth reserve, 2.4 acres, was enlarged sometime after its creation (in 1933) by addition of two fields underlain by clayish soils, adjoining the main feature; a shallow overgrown pond which is one of only two UK locations for the adder's-tongue spearwort, a very rare member of the buttercup family, though one much more common elsewhere in the world, growing across Europe, North Africa and Asia. The other UK location is Inglestone Common, near Yate.

Known informally as the Badgeworth buttercup, it is not particularly interesting to look at since the flowers resemble most other yellow buttercups, only smaller, though it occurs profusely in the pond and is accompanied by other riparian species, most somewhat uncommon, including water-crowfoot, fen bedstraw, lanceleaf water plantain, marsh speedwell and water forget-me-not.

Partly to protect the plants and partly as the site is not so special for most of the time, when the wildflowers are not blooming, the reserve is only open to the public on one day a year, in early June, though it is guarded merely by a locked gate and a low fence. On the open day people from Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust are on hand to guide visitors and answer questions. Most of the other aquatic plants are also in bloom at this time.