There’s an invader turning huge swathes of Britain into deserts – and these dead zones are spreading | George Monbiot

There are places dominated by a single plant species, called Molinia caerulea or purple moor-grass.

Over the past 50 years , it has swarmed across vast upland areas.

Most of central Dartmoor is now Molinia desert, and just as disheartening and hard to traverse.

Molinia challenges the definition of an invasive species.

A new report by Natural England states that livestock grazing is not required to protect the main habitat type blanket mire that Molinia threatens.

Whitehead has watched what happens: the animals graze around the edges of the Molinia , eating only small amounts, while continuing to knock back other plant species.

Rewetting the land, by blocking drains and building bunds and perhaps, as one team is attempting, planting clumps of sphagnum moss among the grass, in order to restore the peat.