Minwear Wood is a

Site of Special Scientific Interest A Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) in Great Britain or an Area of Special Scientific Interest (ASSI) in the Isle of Man and Northern Ireland is a conservation designation denoting a protected area in the United Kingdom and Isle of ...

(or ''SSSI'') in

Pembrokeshire, South Wales Pembrokeshire ( ; cy, Sir Benfro ) is a county in the south-west of Wales. It is bordered by Carmarthenshire to the east, Ceredigion to the northeast, and the rest by sea. The county is home to Pembrokeshire Coast National Park. The Park occu ...

. It has been designated as a Site of Special Scientific Interest since January 1968 in an attempt to protect its fragile biological elements including ancient woodland of sessile oak (''

Quercus petraea ''Quercus petraea'', commonly known as the sessile oak, Cornish oak, Irish Oak or durmast oak, is a species of oak tree native to most of Europe and into Anatolia and Iran. The sessile oak is the national tree of Ireland, and an unofficial emble ...

'') with hazel (''

Corylus avellana ''Corylus avellana'', the common hazel, is a species of flowering plant in the birch family Betulaceae. It is native to Europe and western Asia. It is an important component of the hedgerows that were the traditional field boundaries in lowland En ...

'') and downy birch (''

Betula pubescens ''Betula pubescens'' (syn. ''Betula alba''), commonly known as downy birch and also as moor birch, white birch, European white birch or hairy birch, is a species of deciduous tree, native and abundant throughout northern Europe and northern Asia ...

'') on the upper part of the

Milford Haven Milford Haven ( cy, Aberdaugleddau, meaning "mouth of the two Rivers Cleddau") is both a town and a community in Pembrokeshire, Wales. It is situated on the north side of the Milford Haven Waterway, an estuary forming a natural harbour that has ...

estuary. The wood is structurally diverse and has scarce plants and

epiphytic An epiphyte is an organism that grows on the surface of a plant and derives its moisture and nutrients from the air, rain, water (in marine environments) or from debris accumulating around it. The plants on which epiphytes grow are called phoroph ...

lichen A lichen ( , ) is a composite organism that arises from algae or cyanobacteria living among filaments of multiple fungi species in a mutualistic relationship.Countryside Council for Wales website (Natural Resources Wales since 2013)
accessdate: 30 December 2013 The site has an area of and is managed by

Natural Resources Wales Natural Resources Wales ( cy, Cyfoeth Naturiol Cymru) is a Welsh Government sponsored body, which became operational from 1 April 2013, when it took over the management of the natural resources of Wales. It was formed from a merger of the Count ...

Type and features

This site is designated due to its biological qualities. SSSIs in Wales have been notified for a total of 142 different animal species and 191 different plant species. This predominantly sessile oakwood on red marls of the

Old Red Sandstone The Old Red Sandstone is an assemblage of rocks in the North Atlantic region largely of Devonian age. It extends in the east across Great Britain, Ireland and Norway, and in the west along the northeastern seaboard of North America. It also exte ...

and

Silurian The Silurian ( ) is a geologic period and system spanning 24.6 million years from the end of the Ordovician Period, at million years ago ( Mya), to the beginning of the Devonian Period, Mya. The Silurian is the shortest period of the Paleozo ...

mudstone Mudstone, a type of mudrock, is a fine-grained sedimentary rock whose original constituents were clays or muds. Mudstone is distinguished from '' shale'' by its lack of fissility (parallel layering).Blatt, H., and R.J. Tracy, 1996, ''Petrology. ...

s, is a remnant of a once older and larger woodland at Minwear described in Elizabethan times as a “great wood or forest”. Scarce plants include: the hay-scented buckler-fern (''

Dryopteris aemula ''Dryopteris aemula'', the hay-scented buckler-fern or hay-scented fern, is a species of perennial Leptosporangiate fern, leptosporangiate fern. Description ''Dryopteris aemula'' grows as a crown of fronds arising from a short ascending rhizome ...

'') and wood spurge (''

Euphorbia amygdaloides ''Euphorbia amygdaloides'', the wood spurge, is a species of flowering plant in the family Euphorbiaceae, native to woodland locations in Europe, Turkey and the Caucasus. It is a bushy evergreen perennial, growing to a height of , with dark green ...

''), the wild service tree (''

Sorbus torminalis ''Sorbus torminalis'', with common names wild service tree, chequers, and checker tree, is a species of tree in the mountain Fraxinus, ash or rowan genus (''Sorbus'') of the rose family (Rosaceae), that is native to Europe, parts of northern Afr ...

''), crab apple (''

Malus sylvestris ''Malus sylvestris'', the European crab apple, is a species of the genus ''Malus'', native to Europe. Its scientific name means "forest apple" and the truly wild tree has thorns. Description Wild apple has an expanded crown and often appears mor ...

'') and aspen (''

Populus tremula ''Populus tremula'' (commonly called aspen, common aspen, Eurasian aspen, European aspen, or quaking aspen) is a species of poplar native to cool temperate regions of Europe and Asia, from Iceland and the British IslesJames KilkellIrish native ...

''). The 70 different epiphytic lichens found include: ''

Phyllopsora rosei ''Phyllopsora rosei'' is a species of lichen belonging to the family Ramalinaceae The Ramalinaceae are a family of lichenized fungi in the order Lecanorales. The family name is synonymous with the name ''Bacidiaceae''. Species of this family ...

'', the pollution-sensitive ''

Lobaria pulmonaria ''Lobaria pulmonaria'' is a large epiphytic lichen consisting of an ascomycete fungus and a green algal partner living together in a symbiotic relationship with a cyanobacterium—a symbiosis involving members of three kingdoms of organisms. ...

''. Around 85 different

moss Mosses are small, non-vascular flowerless plants in the taxonomic division Bryophyta (, ) '' sensu stricto''. Bryophyta (''sensu lato'', Schimp. 1879) may also refer to the parent group bryophytes, which comprise liverworts, mosses, and hor ...

es and

liverwort The Marchantiophyta () are a division of non-vascular land plants commonly referred to as hepatics or liverworts. Like mosses and hornworts, they have a gametophyte-dominant life cycle, in which cells of the plant carry only a single set of g ...

s are found in this site including ''

Nowellia curvifolia ''Nowellia curvifolia'' is a species of liverwort belonging to the family Cephaloziaceae Cephaloziaceae is a family of liverworts. Liverworts of this family are dioecious plants which have creeping or upright forms. They are green, brown, red ...

''.

References

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External links

Natural Resources Wales website
Sites of Special Scientific Interest in Pembrokeshire

Type and features

See also

References

External links