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Wigpool
Wigpool () is a nature reserve in Gloucestershire in the Forest of Dean, England.'Wigpool Nature Reserve Management Brief, February 2010, Forestry Commission and Gloucestershire Wildlife TrustKelham, A, Sanderson, J, Doe, J, Edgeley-Smith, M, et al., 1979, 1990, 2002 editions, 'Nature Reserves of the Gloucestershire Trust for Nature Conservation/Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust' - separate reserve entries for 'Wigpool' and 'Pit House Pond and Bog' The site is managed jointly by the Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust and the Forestry Commission by agreement with the Forestry Commission. Originally the Trust held two separate nature reserves under lease from the commission. The revised agreement for a single reserve, called Wigpool, operates from 2009, but involvement with the two separate areas goes back to 1967/68. There was a formal agreement for Pit House Pond and Bog in 1978. The site (both original parts) is listed in the 'Forest of Dean Local Plan Review' as a Key Wildlife Site ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wigpool Ironstone Mine
Wigpool Ironstone Mine () is a biological Site of Special Scientific Interest in Gloucestershire, notified in 1998. Location and habitat The mine is one of a series of Sites of Special Scientific Interest within the Forest of Dean and Wye Valley (Gloucestershire and Monmouthshire). These sites support (between them) breeding and hibernation roosts for Lesser and Greater horseshoe bats. This is of European importance. Other sites in the group in Gloucestershire (all of which are SSSIs) include the breeding sites of Blaisdon Hall, Caerwood And Ashberry Goose House, Dean Hall Coach House & Cellar and Sylvan House Barn. Hibernation sites include Buckshraft Mine & Bradley Hill Railway Tunnel, Devil's Chapel Scowles, Old Bow And Old Ham Mines and Westbury Brook Ironstone Mine. The deciduous woodlands and sheltered valleys of the Forest of Dean and the Wye Valley provide a good feeding area, and the underground systems provide roosting and breeding sites. A ring of iron-ore ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust
The Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust is the Gloucestershire local partner in a conservation network of 46 Wildlife Trusts. The Wildlife Trusts are local charities with the specific aim of protecting the United Kingdom's natural heritage. The Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust is managed by a Board of Trustees elected from its membership who provide overall direction for the development of the trust and there are advisory committees. The work of the trust is carried out through staff and volunteers. History The trust was founded in 1961 and was then named the Gloucestershire Trust for Nature Conservation. Founder members included Sir Peter Scott, Christopher Cadbury and a group of other local people with the shared interest of nature conservation. The name was changed to the Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust in 1991. In 1990 Lady Scott became the trust's patron succeeding her late husband, Sir Peter Scott. Originally the trust headquarters was at Church House, Standish, which was opene ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Marsh Pennywort, Hydrocotyle Vulgaris
A marsh is a wetland that is dominated by herbaceous rather than woody plant species.Keddy, P.A. 2010. Wetland Ecology: Principles and Conservation (2nd edition). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK. 497 p Marshes can often be found at the edges of lakes and streams, where they form a transition between the aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems. They are often dominated by grasses, rushes or reeds. If woody plants are present they tend to be low-growing shrubs, and the marsh is sometimes called a carr. This form of vegetation is what differentiates marshes from other types of wetland such as swamps, which are dominated by trees, and mires, which are wetlands that have accumulated deposits of acidic peat. Marshes provide habitats for many kinds of invertebrates, fish, amphibians, waterfowl and aquatic mammals. This biological productivity means that marshes contain 0.1% of global sequestered terrestrial carbon. Moreover, they have an outsized influence on climate resilie ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bog Asphodel
''Narthecium ossifragum'', commonly known as bog asphodel, Lancashire asphodel or bastard asphodel, is a species of flowering plant in the family Nartheciaceae. It is native to Western Europe, found on wet, boggy moorlands up to about in elevation. It produces spikes of bright yellow flowers in summer. The bright orange fruits have been used as a colourant to replace saffron by Shetland Islanders.Richard Mabey ''Flora Britannica'' Despite the plant's English name "bog asphodel", it is not particularly closely related to the true asphodels. In addition to other forms of pollination, this plant is adapted to rain-pollination. The Latin specific name ''ossifragum'' means "bone-breaker", and refers to a traditional belief that eating the plant caused sheep to develop brittle bones. The probable origin of this story is that sheep eating a calcium-poor diet are likely to develop bone weakness, and ''N. ossifragum'' favours acidic low-calcium soils. Description Bog asphodel is a tuft ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bramble
A bramble is any rough, tangled, prickly shrub, usually in the genus ''Rubus'', which grows blackberries, raspberries, or dewberries. "Bramble" is also used to describe other prickly shrubs, such as roses (''Rosa'' species). The fruits include blackberries, arctic brambleberries, or raspberries, depending on the species, and are used to make jellies, jams, and preserves. In British English, bramble usually refers to the common blackberry, ''Rubus fruticosus''. ''R. fruticosus'' grows abundantly in all parts of the British Isles, and harvesting the fruits in late summer and autumn is often considered a favourite pastime. An especially hardy plant, bramble bushes can also become a nuisance in gardens, sending down strong suckering roots amongst hedges and shrubs and being particularly resilient against pruning. Many consider ''R. fruticosus'' a weed due its tendency to grow in neglected areas and its sharp, tough thorns, which can be hazardous to children and pets. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bell Heather
''Erica cinerea'', the bell heather, is a species of flowering plant in the heath family Ericaceae, native to western and central Europe. The plant provides a great deal of nectar for pollinators. It was rated in the top 5 for most nectar production (nectar per unit cover per year) in a UK plants survey conducted by the AgriLand project which is supported by the UK Insect Pollinators Initiative. Description It is a low, spreading shrub growing to tall, with fine needle-like leaves long arranged in whorls of three. The flowers are bell-shaped, purple (rarely white), long, produced in mid- to late summer. The flowers are dry, similar in texture to the strawflower. The Latin specific epithet ''cinerea'' means "ash coloured". Distribution ''Erica cinerea'' is native to the west of Europe, where it is most abundant in Britain and Ireland, France, northern Spain and southern Norway. It also occurs in the Faroe Islands, Belgium, Germany, north-western Italy, and the Netherlands. I ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cross-leaved Heath
''Erica tetralix'', the cross-leaved heath, is a species of flowering plant in the family Ericaceae, native to western Europe, from southern Portugal to central Norway, as well as a number of boggy regions further from the coast in Central Europe such as Austria and Switzerland. In bogs, wet heaths and damp coniferous woodland, ''E. tetralix'' can become a dominant part of the flora. It has also been introduced to parts of North America. Description It is a perennial subshrub with small pink bell-shaped drooping flowers borne in compact clusters at the ends of its shoots, and leaves in whorls of four (whence the name). The flowers appear in summer and autumn. The distinction between ''E. tetralix'' and the related species ''Erica cinerea'' is that the linear leaves are usually glandular and in whorls of four, while those of ''Erica cinerea'' are glabrous and borne in whorls of three. The leaves of ''Calluna vulgaris'' are much smaller and scale-like and borne in opposite and dec ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Creeping Willow
''Salix repens'', the creeping willow, is a small, shrubby species of willow in the family Salicaceae, growing up to 1.5metres in height. Found amongst sand dunes and heathlands, it is a polymorphic species, with a wide range of variants. In the UK, at least, these range from small, prostrate, hairless plants at one end of the spectrum to taller, erect or ascending silky-leaved shrubs at the other. This wide variation in form has resulted in numerous synonyms. Distribution The plant has a Eurosiberian Boreo-temperate range, and is widely distributed around the coasts of western and northern Europe. In the UK, the prostrate forms (ssp. ''argentea'' and ssp. ''repens'') are characteristically found on sand dunes, growing close to the water table in dune slacks, as well as in coastal heaths and acid grassland, as well as being found further inland on heaths and moorland. The erect form (var. ''fusca'') occurs in fens. The species becomes more confined to moist or wet habitats ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Western Gorse
''Ulex gallii'', the western gorse or dwarf furzeA R Clapham, T G Tutin, E F Warburg, ''Flora of the British Isles'', Cambridge, 1962, p. 332 is an evergreen shrub in the pea family (Fabaceae), native to the Atlantic coasts of western Europe: southern Scotland, England, Wales, Ireland, the Isle of Man, western France and the northern coast of Spain. It favours acidic heathy soils and is frequently found in exposed maritime and montane environments. It is more common in the west of its distribution; in eastern England it is replaced in similar habitats by the closely related Dwarf Furze (''Ulex minor''), with very little overlap in the distribution of the two species. ''Ulex gallii'' is usually tall although it may grow up to . The stems are modified into spines, mostly about long, but with some regularly spaced recurved spines of about . Like other members of the genus ''Ulex'' it has trifoliate leaves as a seedling, but later the leaves are reduced to small scales or spines. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Salix Atrocinerea
''Salix atrocinerea'', commonly called grey willow or large gray willow, is a species of willow. It is a bush or small tree up to tall. As a pioneer species of willow, it quickly colonizes poor soils. Distribution The grey willow distribution is mostly Atlantic from Western Europe and North Africa to some Mediterranean islands. Naturally growing in Britain, France, Belgium, Spain, Portugal, Morocco, Tunisia, it is very common in the Iberian Peninsula, and is also found in Corsica. Ecology The species hybridizes readily with other species of willow and many hybrids have been identified. It flowers from January until March or April, depending on location, with the spread of seeds ripening from April to March. The grey willow lives in freshly disturbed land, with preference for acidic soil, but this is a very hardy species and is even found on beaches near the sea and on islands. It grows in sandy or gravel shores of rivers, streams and ponds, meadows, valleys and hedgerows with ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alder
Alders are trees comprising the genus ''Alnus'' in the birch family Betulaceae. The genus comprises about 35 species of monoecious trees and shrubs, a few reaching a large size, distributed throughout the north temperate zone with a few species extending into Central America, as well as the northern and southern Andes. Description With a few exceptions, alders are deciduous, and the leaves are alternate, simple, and serrated. The flowers are catkins with elongate male catkins on the same plant as shorter female catkins, often before leaves appear; they are mainly wind-pollinated, but also visited by bees to a small extent. These trees differ from the birches (''Betula'', another genus in the family) in that the female catkins are woody and do not disintegrate at maturity, opening to release the seeds in a similar manner to many conifer cones. The largest species are red alder (''A. rubra'') on the west coast of North America, and black alder (''A. glutinosa''), native ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bilberry
Bilberries (), or sometimes European blueberries, are a primarily Eurasian species of low-growing shrubs in the genus ''Vaccinium'' (family Ericaceae), bearing edible, dark blue berries. The species most often referred to is ''Vaccinium myrtillus'' L., but there are several other closely related species. Etymology and common names The name "bilberry" appears to have a Scandinavian origin, possibly from as early as 1577, being similar to the Danish word ''bølle'' for whortleberry with the addition of "berry". In Scandinavian languages bilberries have names that translate to "blueberry": ''blåbär'' in Swedish and ''blåbær'' in Danish and Norwegian. The bilberry (especially ''Vaccinium myrtillus'') is also known by a number of other names including blaeberry in Scottish and Northern English regional dialects and the Scots language, whortleberry in southern England, and w(h)imberry or w(h)inberry in Derbyshire, Lancashire, along the Anglo-Welsh border, and south Wales, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
