Black Lake is a nature reserve in

Delamere Forest Delamere Forest is a large wood in the village of Delamere in Cheshire, England. The woodland, which is managed by Forestry England, covers an area of making it the largest area of woodland in the county. It contains a mixture of deciduous and ...

Cheshire Cheshire ( ) is a ceremonial and historic county in North West England, bordered by Wales to the west, Merseyside and Greater Manchester to the north, Derbyshire to the east, and Staffordshire and Shropshire to the south. Cheshire's county t ...

, England. It lies in the southwestern corner of the forest, just south of the Manchester–Chester railway. It is managed by the

Cheshire Wildlife Trust The Cheshire Wildlife Trust (CWT) is a wildlife trust covering the county of Cheshire and parts of the counties of Greater Manchester and Merseyside, England. The trust's chairman is Bill Stothart. It manages 43 nature reserves totalling over 470 ...

(CWT) on behalf of the

Forestry Commission The Forestry Commission is a non-ministerial government department responsible for the management of publicly owned forests and the regulation of both public and private forestry in England. The Forestry Commission was previously also respon ...

, and as a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) is monitored by

Natural England Natural England is a non-departmental public body in the United Kingdom sponsored by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. It is responsible for ensuring that England's natural environment, including its land, flora and fauna, ...

.Interpretative notice on site The site is designated as an SSSI because "it represents a very early stage of a '' Schwingmoor'' type basin fen and occurs in association with

dystrophic Dystrophic lakes, also known as humic lakes, are lakes that contain high amounts of humic substances and organic acids. The presence of these substances causes the water to be brown in colour and have a generally low pH of around 4.0-6.0. Due to ...

open water." A ''Schwingmoor'' or quaking bog occurs when plants such as ''

Sphagnum ''Sphagnum'' is a genus of approximately 380 accepted species of mosses, commonly known as sphagnum moss, peat moss, also bog moss and quacker moss (although that term is also sometimes used for peat). Accumulations of ''Sphagnum'' can store wa ...

'' mosses and cotton grass ''Eriophorum'' sp. colonise the surface of a waterbody and form a

floating mat A floating mat (german: Schwingrasen) is a layer of mosses and other, especially stoloniferous, plants that grows out from the shore across the surface of a lake or pond. This type of habitat is protected and is designated in the European Habitat ...

of vegetation; at Black Lake the ''Sphagnum'' raft covers around half the lake surface. The SSSI (which includes the surrounding catchment area) covers an area of ; the CWT reserve is in area. The site is also noted for its uncommon dragonflies, which formerly included the

white-faced darter The white-faced darter or small whiteface (''Leucorrhinia dubia'') is a dragonfly belonging to the genus '' Leucorrhinia'' in the family Libellulidae, characterised by red and black markings and a distinctive white patch on the head. It is foun ...

(''Leucorrhinia dubia'').

History

The depression containing Black Lake was created by the melting of an ice-block at the end of the last Ice Age some 10,000 years ago. The lake was enlarged as a duck pond in the 1820s. By the 1940s it was completely covered by ''Sphagnum'' moss, and in 1973 had developed a hummocked appearance and had been colonised by young trees. The building of a crushed-limestone road nearby changed the acidity of the conditions and the moss ''Sphagnum cuspidatum'', which hosted the nymphs of the white-faced darter, disappeared. In 1995 the limestone material was removed, and the raft of vegetation began to recover, but the white-faced darter has not been recorded since 1997.

Key species

The following species of dragonflies and damselflies have been recorded at Black Lake: white-faced darter (''

Leucorrhinia dubia ''Leucorrhinia'' is a genus of dragonfly in the family Libellulidae. They are commonly called whitefaces because of their distinctive pale frons. Species Listed alphabetically. References External links * * Whitefaces PBase Whitefaces
B ...

'', last recorded 1997), brown hawker (''

Aeshna grandis The brown hawker (''Aeshna grandis'') is a large dragonfly about long. It is a distinctive species and is easily recognised, even in flight, by its brown body and bronze wings. At rest, blue spots on the second and third segments of the male' ...

''), four-spotted chaser (''

Libellula quadrimaculata ''Libellula quadrimaculata'', known in Europe as the four-spotted chaser and in North America as the four-spotted skimmer, is a dragonfly of the family Libellulidae found widely throughout Europe, Asia, and North America. The adult stage is foun ...

''), common darter ('' Sympetrum striolatum''), black darter (''

Sympetrum danae ''Sympetrum danae'', the black darter or black meadowhawk is a dragonfly found in northern Europe, Asia, and North America. At about long, it is Britain's smallest resident dragonfly. It is a very active late summer insect typical of heathland ...

''), large red damselfly (''

Pyrrhosoma nymphula The large red damselfly (''Pyrrhosoma nymphula'') is a species of damselflies belonging to the family Coenagrionidae. It is native to the western Palearctic realm, Palearctic. Distribution This species is a mainly European damselfly, with some p ...

'') and common blue damselfly (''

Enallagma cyathigerum ''Enallagma cyathigerum'' (common blue damselfly, common bluet, or northern bluet) is a species found mainly between latitudes 40°N and 72°N; It is widely distributed in the Palearctic, and the Nearctic species '' Enallagma annexum'' was at o ...

''). Unusual plants for the area include common sundew (''

Drosera rotundifolia ''Drosera rotundifolia'', the round-leaved sundew, roundleaf sundew, or common sundew, is a carnivorous species of flowering plant that grows in bogs, marshes and fens. One of the most widespread sundew species, it has a circumboreal distribut ...

''), white sedge ('' Carex curta''), common cottongrass (''

Eriophorum angustifolium ''Eriophorum angustifolium'', commonly known as common cottongrass or common cottonsedge, is a species of flowering plant in the sedge family, Cyperaceae. Native to North America, North Asia, and Northern Europe, it grows on peat or acidic soil ...

'') and wild cranberry (''

Vaccinium oxycoccos ''Vaccinium oxycoccos'' is a species of flowering plant in the heath family. It is known as small cranberry, marshberry, bog cranberry, swamp cranberry, or, particularly in Britain, just cranberry. It is widespread throughout the cool temperate ...

'').

References

{{Reflist

External links

*Photographs at Geograph
SJ 537 709SJ 537 708SJ 538 708
Nature reserves in Cheshire Sites of Special Scientific Interest in Cheshire Cheshire Wildlife Trust reserves