Rushbeds Wood is a nature reserve near Wotton Underwood in

Buckinghamshire Buckinghamshire (), abbreviated Bucks, is a ceremonial county in South East England that borders Greater London to the south-east, Berkshire to the south, Oxfordshire to the west, Northamptonshire to the north, Bedfordshire to the north-ea ...

, managed by the

Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire Wildlife Trust The Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire Wildlife Trust (BBOWT), is a wildlife trust covering the counties of Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire in England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It sh ...

(BBOWT). It is a surviving fragment of the ancient

Bernwood Forest Bernwood Forest was one of several forests of the ancient Kingdom of England and was a Royal hunting forest. It is thought to have been set aside as Royal hunting land when the Anglo-Saxon kings had a palace at Brill and church in Oakley, in th ...

. The reserve is part of Rushbeds Wood and Railway Cutting, an biological

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 ...

. This includes a section of the Chiltern Main Line railway cutting, which runs along the north-east side of the BBOWT reserve. The site is ancient woodland on heavy clay soils which are often waterlogged. The invertebrate fauna are described by Natural England as "exceptional", including over thirty butterfly species, such as the nationally rare black hairstreak and the scarce wood white and purple emperor. The woodland is wet ash and maple, with other trees including elm and hornbeam. The understorey has species indicative of long tree cover, such as

Poa nemoralis ''Poa nemoralis'', the wood bluegrass, is a perennial plant in the family Poaceae. The late-growing grass is fairly nutritious for livestock, which feed on it in the autumn, and it is used as a lawn grass for shady situations. Description It fo ...

and

wood millet ''Milium effusum'', the American milletgrass or wood millet, is a species of flowering plant in the grass family Poaceae, native to damp forests of the Holarctic Kingdom. The Latin specific epithet ''effusum'' means "spreading loosely". Habit ...

. There are many common breeding birds and in the ponds and ditches there are breeding smooth and great crested newts. The railway cutting is dominated by upright brome grass. There is access to the BBOWT site by a railway bridge at the eastern corner of the site.

References

{{Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire Wildlife Trust Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire Wildlife Trust Sites of Special Scientific Interest in Buckinghamshire