Foxley Wood: An Ancient Woodland


As part of our Ecology course here at UEA, we headed over to Foxley Wood in a bid to expand our knowledge on the subject of ancient woodland and its management, in addition to the various flora and fauna often found on the site.

Spanning a total of 123 hectares, Foxley Wood is located in the North of Norfolk and is owned and managed by The Norfolk Wildlife Trust, who purchased it in 1998. It is the largest remaining ancient woodland in all of Norfolk and is of vital importance due to its reputation as a refuge for a sizeable level of biodiversity. The wood is home to a plethora of different plant species, with over 350 flowering plant species recorded on site including wild garlic, orchids and bluebells, whilst the rare wild service-tree is also present here.

Image result for foxley wood bluebells
Bluebells found on site at Foxley Wood. Image courtesy of Rita Leggett.


In order to maintain the levels of biodiversity currently found at Foxley, it has to various management procedures. One such procedure is the practice of coppicing which involves cutting trees as low as possible before allowing new shoots to grow over the course of a decade or so. The cycle is then repeated as these shoots are then also coppiced. Coppicing allows the development and growth of a greater amount of ground vegetation by enabling more sunlight to reach the forest floor. Foxley implements a strategy involving coppicing with standards, meaning that a selection of trees are not cut and are left to grow as it is thought this contributes to a greater level of biodiversity by providing a habitat for certain birds and insects.

A salient purpose for our outing to Foxley was to learn about the key role of indicator species in sites such as ancient woodland. The most prominent indicator species which we were able to identify was wood sorrel (Oxalis acetostella), a small plant which produces brilliant white flowers between April and May each year. Indicator species such as wood sorrel are useful for determining the age of a particular woodland, with the higher frequency of species the older the woodland.

Wood sorrel is renowned for its acidic, sour taste. Edible, the plant can be utilised for medicinal purposes with its inclusion in skin lotion notable. It can also be used to treat certain fevers. Excess consumption should be avoided however, due to the high oxalic salt within the plant, possibly inflicting those who ingest it with adverse effects.

Related image
Wood sorrel. Image courtesy of Greg Fitchett.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Much Loved Species- European Hedgehog

Image
Latin name: Erinaceus europaeus Image courtesy of Ches Moonie. Widely distributed throughout Western and central Europe and found nearly everywhere in the UK, the European hedgehog is a much-loved mammal with its characteristic prickly defensive spines playing an important role n its popularity and familiarity.  Hedgehogs are found across a rather broad range of habitats. This encompasses woodland, grassland, farmland and even urban settlements. They prefer to be present on low lying hills, although they have been recorded venturing and settling in mountainous terrain. The species are sparse in areas of moorland, marshland and coniferous forests. They are however, a common visitor to gardens, reinforcing their warm  reputation on a national scale. The typical European hedgehog is brown in colour, with its soft underbelly protected with up to 6000 brown and white spines attached to its back. Body length varies between approximately 15-30 centimetres, whilst adults c...
Read more

Silver Lining- Silver Birch

Image
Latin name: Betula pendula  Image by Tim Graham Native to Europe, Asia and introduced to North America, silver birch is a moderately sized. deciduous tree with distinctive white, shedding bark. Birch is a popular garden tree, although it tends to thrive in dry woodland, downs and heaths. Reaching up to 30 metres in height when mature, birch forms a light canopy with its slim, white braches, which are often covered in small and dark warts. Birch possesses small, green leaves, which are shaped triangularly with a pointed edge. These slowly fade to a pale yellow colour in the autumn months before dropping from the tree all together. Silver birch germinates and reproduces through the method of wind dispersion, which commences when the catkins release their pollen to the environment. These seeds are often dispersed in autumn. After successful pollination is achieved the female catkin turns to a dark crimson colour, when the catkin was previously of green colouration. The sp...
Read more

Walking on Water- Pond Skater

Image
Latin name: Gerris lacustris Photo by David Davis Often seen whizzing around on the water's surface from spring until the end of autumn, there is no doubt that pond skaters are fascinating insects. They possess thin, brownish bodies with small heads, large eyes, and long spindly legs. Such legs allow the skater to propel themselves forward at tremendous speed, whilst the back legs act to steer and direct the insect in the desired direction. Skaters are often found in slow-moving or still bodies of water and are found across the whole of the UK. Skaters are aquatic predators and tend to feed upon invertebrates which are unfortunate enough to fall on to the surface of the water. The prey creates water ripples which are detected by the sensory hairs on its front legs. The skater rapidly closes in on its prey, puncturing it with its proboscis and delivering a dose of digestive enzymes. The digested insides of the prey are then slowly sucked up through the proboscis of the ska...
Read more