Exmoor Coastal Heaths () is a 1758.3

hectare The hectare (; SI symbol: ha) is a non-SI metric unit of area equal to a square with 100-metre sides (1 hm2), or 10,000 m2, and is primarily used in the measurement of land. There are 100 hectares in one square kilometre. An acre is a ...

(4344.7 acre) biological Site of Special Scientific Interest in

Devon Devon ( , historically known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South West England. The most populous settlement in Devon is the city of Plymouth, followed by Devon's county town, the city of Exeter. Devon is ...

and

Somerset ( en, All The People of Somerset) , locator_map = , coordinates = , region = South West England , established_date = Ancient , established_by = , preceded_by = , origin = , lord_lieutenant_office =Lord Lieutenant of Somerset , lord_ ...

, notified in 1994. This site lies within the Exmoor National Park, and contains extensive areas of heathland communities. Associated particularly with the coastal communities and woods are a wide range of nationally rare and scarce plants. The site comprises four separate blocks (between

Combe Martin Combe Martin is a village, civil parish and former manor on the North Devon coast about east of Ilfracombe. It is a small seaside resort with a sheltered cove on the northwest edge of the Exmoor National Park. Due to the narrowness of the ...

and

Minehead Minehead is a coastal town and civil parish in Somerset, England. It lies on the south bank of the Bristol Channel, north-west of the county town of Taunton, from the boundary with the county of Devon and in proximity of the Exmoor National P ...

) centred on

Trentishoe 220px, The Trentishoe area on Donn's one inch to the mile survey of 1765. Trentishoe is a village and civil parish in North Devon, England. The parish lies on the coast of the Bristol Channel. The village is east of Combe Martin, at an elevatio ...

, Cosgate Hill,

Countisbury Countisbury is a hamlet on Exmoor in Devon, England. It is roughly two miles east of Lynmouth along the A39. It has a church and pub. The National Trust owns the other buildings. Since 2012, Countisbury has formed part of the civil parish of B ...

and North Hill. There are two nationally rare, endemic whitebeam species which occur in the woodland areas namely '' Sorbus subcuneata'' and ''

Sorbus vexans ''Sorbus vexans'' (known as bloody whitebeam) is a rare tree in the family Rosaceae. It is endemic to England. It is found along the coast between Culbone in Somerset and an area just west of Trentishoe in Devon. It can be seen in the Exmoor Na ...

''. Several nationally scarce plant species are found within this site; white mullein (''Verbascum lychnitis'') in its yellow form occurs in fields at the edge of the site, Cornish moneywort (''

Sibthorpia europaea ''Sibthorpia europaea'' is a species of flowering plant known by the common name Cornish moneywort. It can be found as a disjunct distribution in Western Europe from the Azores, Portugal and Spain to south-western Ireland and south-western Unite ...

'') beside streams, rock stonecrop ('' Sedum forsteranum'') on rocky seacliffs and sea storksbill ('' Erodium maritinum''),

upright chickweed ''Moenchia'' is a genus of plants in the family Caryophyllaceae with three species native to the Mediterranean region of southern Europe and naturalised in southern Africa and parts of North America and Australia. They are herbs, with an annual ...

(''Moenchia erecta'') and bird's-foot clover (''Trifolium ornithopodioides'') all in areas of very short turf. A nationally rare

butterfly Butterflies are insects in the macrolepidopteran clade Rhopalocera from the Order (biology), order Lepidoptera, which also includes moths. Adult butterflies have large, often brightly coloured wings, and conspicuous, fluttering flight. The ...

the

high brown fritillary ''Fabriciana adippe'', the high brown fritillary, is a large and brightly colored butterfly of the family Nymphalidae, native to Europe and across the Palearctic to Japan. It is known for being Great Britain's most threatened butterfly and is li ...

(''Argynnis adippe'') occurs on this site.

References

{{SSSIs Somerset biological Sites of Special Scientific Interest in Devon Sites of Special Scientific Interest in Somerset Sites of Special Scientific Interest notified in 1994 Exmoor Heaths of the United Kingdom