Bookham Commons are two

commons The commons is the cultural and natural resources accessible to all members of a society, including natural materials such as air, water, and a habitable Earth. These resources are held in common even when owned privately or publicly. Commons c ...

, situated just to the north of the villages of

Great Bookham Great Bookham is a village in Surrey, England, one of six semi-urban spring line settlements between the towns of Leatherhead and Guildford. With the narrow strip parish of Little Bookham, it forms part of the Saxon settlement of ''Bocham'' ...

and

Little Bookham Little Bookham is a small, historic village in Surrey, England between Great Bookham and Effingham. It is home to several listed historical buildings, included in a large conservation area, along with Ye Olde Windsor Castle public house, Manor H ...

, in Surrey,

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

, in extent; the individual parts are named Great Bookham Common and Little Bookham Common. A group of dwellings known as the Isle of Wight is situated within the site, and a track, Common Road, leads to it from the northwest. Little Bookham Common (the smaller of the two parts of the site) lies south and west of this track, whereas Great Bookham Common lies to the east. Together the two commons comprise a Site of Special Scientific Interest. The site is owned by the

National Trust The National Trust, formally the National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty, is a charity and membership organisation for heritage conservation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. In Scotland, there is a separate and ...

. A network of public footpaths and public bridleways cross the site: in addition, there are a number of concessionary horse rides.

Site description

The site sits on

London Clay The London Clay Formation is a marine geological formation of Ypresian (early Eocene Epoch, c. 56–49 million years ago) age which crops out in the southeast of England. The London Clay is well known for its fossil content. The fossils from t ...

Habitat In ecology, the term habitat summarises the array of resources, physical and biotic factors that are present in an area, such as to support the survival and reproduction of a particular species. A species habitat can be seen as the physical ...

types present include

woodland A woodland () is, in the broad sense, land covered with trees, or in a narrow sense, synonymous with wood (or in the U.S., the ''plurale tantum'' woods), a low-density forest forming open habitats with plenty of sunlight and limited shade (se ...

, scrub,

grassland A grassland is an area where the vegetation is dominated by grasses ( Poaceae). However, sedge ( Cyperaceae) and rush ( Juncaceae) can also be found along with variable proportions of legumes, like clover, and other herbs. Grasslands occur na ...

and open water. Woodland covers approximately two-thirds of the site. The majority of this woodland is mature and dominated by

pedunculate oak ''Quercus robur'', commonly known as common oak, pedunculate oak, European oak or English oak, is a species of flowering plant in the beech and oak family, Fagaceae. It is a large tree, native to most of Europe west of the Caucasus. It is widel ...

(''Quercus robur''). These woodlands are dissected by a network of rides. Little Bookham Common is a mosaic of rough grassland and scrub; much of this common is poorly drained and there are several old gunpits and bomb craters. The areas of open grassland are dominated by

tufted hair-grass ''Deschampsia cespitosa'', commonly known as tufted hairgrass or tussock grass, is a perennial tufted plant in the grass family Poaceae. Distribution of this species is widespread including the eastern and western coasts of North America, parts ...

(''Deschampsia cespitosa''). There are several woodland

pond A pond is an area filled with water, either natural or artificial, that is smaller than a lake. Defining them to be less than in area, less than deep, and with less than 30% emergent vegetation helps in distinguishing their ecology from ...

s on the site and a

tributary A tributary, or affluent, is a stream or river that flows into a larger stream or main stem (or parent) river or a lake. A tributary does not flow directly into a sea or ocean. Tributaries and the main stem river drain the surrounding drai ...

of the

River Mole The River Mole is a tributary of the River Thames in southern England. It rises in West Sussex near Gatwick Airport and flows northwest through Surrey for to the Thames at Hampton Court Palace. The river gives its name to the Surrey distri ...

runs across it.

Biodiversity interest

The site's nature conservation importance (the reason for SSSI designation), is due to its plant communities, its community of breeding birds and its invertebrate communities. Thin-spiked wood sedge (''Carex strigosa''), which is scarce in Surrey, is present in woodlands at the site. Two species of rose which are scarce in Surrey, ''

Rosa micrantha ''Rosa micrantha'', the small-flowered sweet briar, is a species of flowering plant in the family Rosaceae. It is native to most of Europe, the Atlas Mountains The Atlas Mountains are a mountain range in the Maghreb in North Africa. It sep ...

'' and ''

Rosa stylosa ''Rosa stylosa'', the short-styled field rose, is a species of flowering plant in the family Rosaceae Rosaceae (), the rose family, is a medium-sized family of flowering plants that includes 4,828 known species in 91 genera. The name is de ...

'' are found in the scrub on Little Bookham Common. The

bryophyte The Bryophyta s.l. are a proposed taxonomic division containing three groups of non-vascular land plants (embryophytes): the liverworts, hornworts and mosses. Bryophyta s.s. consists of the mosses only. They are characteristically limited in s ...

flora in the site's woodland is rich and includes one of only two Surrey localities for the moss ''

Zygodon conoideus ''Zygodon'' is a genus of moss in family Orthotrichaceae Orthotrichaceae is the only family of mosses in the order Orthotrichales. Many species in the family are epiphytic. Classification *'' Cardotiella'' *'' Ceuthotheca'' *'' Codonoblepha ...

''. Notable plants found in the grassland of Little Bookham Common include

southern marsh-orchid ''Dactylorhiza praetermissa'', the southern marsh orchid or leopard marsh orchid, is a commonly occurring species of European orchid. Description ''Dactylorhiza praetermissa'' grows to tall, with leaves generally unspotted. The flowers, appea ...

(''Dactylorhiza praetermissa''),

pepper-saxifrage ''Silaum silaus'', commonly known as pepper-saxifrage, is a perennial plant in the family Apiaceae (Umbelliferae) (the carrot family) found across south-eastern, central, and western Europe, including the British Isles. It grows in damp grasslan ...

(''Silaum silaus''),

spiked sedge ''Carex spicata'' is a species of sedge in the genus ''Carex''. Description The culms of ''Carex spicata'' are long and approximately triangular in section. The leaves are long and wide, with a distinct keel. The ligule, at the base of the ...

(''Carex spicata'') and adder’s-tongue fern (''Ophioglossum vulgatum''). The flora of the site's open water habitats includes three plants which are scarce in Surrey:

greater duckweed ''Spirodela polyrhiza'' ( ''S. polyrrhiza'') is a species of duckweed known by the common names common duckmeat, greater duckweed, great duckmeat, common duckweed, and duckmeat. It can be found nearly worldwide in many types of freshwater habitat ...

(''Lemna polyrhiza''),

fat duckweed ''Lemna gibba'', the gibbous duckweed, swollen duckweed, or fat duckweed, is a species of ''Lemna'' (duckweed). It has a simple plant body, known as a thallus, which floats on the surface of the water and measures in diameter. A single root hang ...

(''Lemna gibba'') and thread-leaved water-crowfoot (''Ranunculus trichophyllus''), while tall-herb fen communities here support two plants which are rare in Surrey, the grass orange foxtail (''Alopecurus aequalis'') and

eared willow ''Salix aurita'', the eared willow, is a species of willow distributed over much of Europe, and occasionally cultivated. It is a shrub to 2.5 m in height, distinguished from the similar but slightly larger '' Salix cinerea'' by its reddish ...

(''Salix aurita''). Breeding birds which are associated with woodland at this site include

hawfinch The hawfinch (''Coccothraustes coccothraustes'') is a passerine bird in the finch family Fringillidae. It is the only species placed in the genus ''Coccothraustes''. Its closest living relatives are the Chinese grosbeak (''Eophona migratoria'') ...

woodcock The woodcocks are a group of seven or eight very similar living species of wading birds in the genus ''Scolopax''. The genus name is Latin for a snipe or woodcock, and until around 1800 was used to refer to a variety of waders. The English name ...

and

lesser spotted woodpecker The lesser spotted woodpecker (''Dryobates minor'') is a member of the woodpecker family Picidae. It was formerly assigned to the genus ''Dendrocopos'' (sometimes incorrectly spelt as ''Dendrocopus''). Some taxonomic authorities continue to list t ...

, whilst those breeding in scrub areas include

nightingale The common nightingale, rufous nightingale or simply nightingale (''Luscinia megarhynchos''), is a small passerine bird best known for its powerful and beautiful song. It was formerly classed as a member of the thrush family Turdidae, but is no ...

and

grasshopper warbler The grass warblers are small passerine birds belonging to the genus ''Locustella''. Formerly placed in the paraphyletic "Old World warbler" assemblage, they are now considered the northernmost representatives of a largely Gondwanan family, the ...

. The site has a very well-recorded invertebrate fauna, which includes 611 species of

beetle Beetles are insects that form the order Coleoptera (), in the superorder Endopterygota. Their front pair of wings are hardened into wing-cases, elytra, distinguishing them from most other insects. The Coleoptera, with about 400,000 describ ...

, 1140 species of fly, 146

true bugs Hemiptera (; ) is an order (biology), order of insects, commonly called true bugs, comprising over 80,000 species within groups such as the cicadas, aphids, planthoppers, leafhoppers, Reduviidae, assassin bugs, Cimex, bed bugs, and shield bugs. ...

, 201

spider Spiders ( order Araneae) are air-breathing arthropods that have eight legs, chelicerae with fangs generally able to inject venom, and spinnerets that extrude silk. They are the largest order of arachnids and rank seventh in total species ...

s, 17

dragonflies A dragonfly is a flying insect belonging to the infraorder Anisoptera below the order Odonata. About 3,000 extant species of true dragonfly are known. Most are tropical, with fewer species in temperate regions. Loss of wetland habitat threa ...

and over 300 species of butterflies and moths. Dead oak trees provide habitat for several beetles which are scarce in Surrey including ''

Nemadus colonoides ''Nemadus colonoides'' is a species of beetle in the Leiodidae family that can be found in such European countries as Belarus, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Italy, Latvia, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Scan ...

'' and '' Aridius nodifer'' . Two moths which occur, the toadflax brocade and the broad-bordered bee hawkmoth are nationally rare. This is a well-known site for the

purple emperor ''Apatura iris'', the purple emperor, is a Palearctic butterfly of the family Nymphalidae. Description Adults have dark brown wings with white bands and spots, and a small orange ring on each of the hindwings. Males have a wingspan of , an ...

, and other scarce butterflies which are present include white-letter and

purple hairstreak The purple hairstreak (''Favonius quercus'') is a butterfly in the family Lycaenidae distributed throughout much of Europe, North Africa, Anatolia, Caucasia, and Transcaucasia. The larva feeds on ''Quercus robur'', ''Quercus petraea'', ''Querc ...

s and the white admiral.

References

{{Authority control Parks and open spaces in Surrey National Trust properties in Surrey Sites of Special Scientific Interest in Surrey