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Very rare species are not considered axiophytes; for a species to be a useful indicator of quality habitat it must be relatively frequent in those habitats, but scarce elsewhere. A typical example would be dog's mercury (Mercurialis perennis), a plant slow to colonise new sites, but common in ancient woodland and old hedgerows.
Blossom of lesser celandine (Ficaria verna) Penduculate oak trees in Wistman's Wood.. The concept of ancient woodland, characterised by high plant diversity and managed through traditional practices, was developed by the ecologist Oliver Rackham in his 1980 book Ancient Woodland, its History, Vegetation and Uses in England, which he wrote following his earlier research on Hayley Wood in ...
The antiquity of the woodlands is reflected in the very high number of ancient woodland indicator species recorded within the site. Over fifty such species occur, including a number of rare or local plants such as tutsan ( Hypericum androsaemum ) making it one of the botanically richest woods in Hampshire.
Some epiphytic lichen species may be used as "ancient woodland indicators"; they can used to quantitatively assess the degree to which a forest has had a long history of canopy continuity. [11] The presence of these species is a reliable indicator that the forest has existed back to early medieval times, without being clear-cut and regrown.
Predominantly an oak, hornbeam and holly wood, Highgate Wood is also home to more than 50 other tree and shrub species which have self-seeded there. The wild service tree, a rare deciduous tree with brown berries, can be found in Highgate Wood. Presence of the wild service tree is commonly taken as an indicator of ancient woodland.
Examples of plant formation include forests, woodlands, and grasslands. Because it may not be possible to determine whether a particular plant was an oak, eucalyptus, or other species, plant formations in paleosols make it possible to identify an ancient woodland ecosystem from an ancient grassland ecosystem. [2]
The plant is an ancient woodland indicator, as the ants rarely carry the seeds more than a few yards, seldom crossing a field to go to a new woodland. The Latin specific epithet pratense means "of meadows". [2] Melampyrum pratense is a food plant of the caterpillars of the heath fritillary (Melitaea athalia), a butterfly. [3]
There is also an extraordinary range of geophytes, the plants that have bulbs or bulbous growths that make them especially adapted to woodland. These include the ancient woodland indicators of lily-of-the-valley, herb paris and ramsons, but also the uncommon in angular Solomon'-seal (Polygonatum odoratum) as well as the common in bluebells ...