Special Features of Ancient Woodland

Unique species assemblages

Due to their long-established nature and undisturbed soils, ancient woodlands host a variety of species uncommon or absent in more recent woodland. These are known as ancient woodland indicator species and include fungi with well developed mycorrhizal networks, mosses found only in woodland microhabitats, epiphytic lichens growing on trees, and saproxylic beetles feeding on dead wood.

However, perhaps the most recognisable ancient woodland species are the vascular plants growing in the understory. Locally, these include carpets of bluebells and wood anemone, rarer species such as yellow archangel and lily-of-the-valley, lesser-noticed plants like shield ferns, and more!

These plants are generally only found in ancient woodland as they are slow to colonise newer woodland – this could be because they spread mostly through clonal reproduction rather than seeds (bluebells) or because they only tolerate a very narrow range of conditions found exclusively in woodlands, limiting their spread (Yellow pimpernel).

Ancient and Heritage Trees 

Though ancient woodland does not necessarily contain old trees, many of them will contain at least a few. Locally, woods may contain heritage trees that show signs of industry past: overgrown coppice or pollard trees, with multiple trunks growing from where it was previously cut. These trees historically provided wood for charcoal, whitecoal, or other local industry, and would have supported diverse species of open woodlands. To learn more about coppice woods, look at the page for our Greno Woods reserve or go and visit!

Trees that have aged beyond maturity enter a new phase of their lives, becoming ancient trees. These trees tend to have a wider trunk than others of their species (though not always, as in the coppices/pollards described above), a reduced crown due to natural dying back of upper branches, and other features distinctive of great age. Though they may appear to be dying, often with hollow trunks, dead branches, and fungal growth, they may continue to live for centuries. These distinctive features are in fact what make them unique and irreplaceable as a habitat, with hollows providing nesting habitat and dead wood food for fungi and saproxylic beetles.

Ancient trees are particularly important in ancient wood pasture and parkland ecology, and a key feature in their designation. Trees growing in dense woods are unlikely to reach a great age; in fact their presence within a woodland often indicates that it was previously a more open habitat! Wood pasture and parkland however often contain trees of a great age, with a distinctive spreading shape as they are not restricted by neighbouring trees. 

Archaeology

Forests have been used by people throughout history, and often preserve evidence of past human activity. While today woodlands are seen as tranquil places to experience nature, in the past they would often have been thrumming with activities like charcoal making, tree felling, coppice harvesting, mining, quarrying, tanning and many more.

Woods were also often managed as places for the hunting of boar, deer, and other wild animals. Deer parks for hunting were often bounded by a fence low enough that deer could jump in, but an inner ditch prevented them from leaving again.

Other archaeological features often found in ancient woodlands include platforms for making charcoal, mining pits, quarries and wood banks – the remains of an ancient boundary with neighbouring fields, usually a bank with trees whose branches would have been woven together to make a living fence. These remains can provide important clues to whether a woodland is ancient, while providing tantalising glimpses into the past.