Pennsylvania Fields, Sedbury () is a biological Site of Special Scientific Interest in Gloucestershire, notified in 1985.Natural England SSSI information on the citation
/ref> The site is listed in the 'Forest of Dean Local Plan Review' as a Key Wildlife Site (KWS).Forest of Dean District Local Plan Review, adopted November 2005, Appendix D 'Nature Conservation Site Designations Within the Forest of Dean District', Key Wildlife Sites
/ref>

Location and use

The fields are in the Forest of Dean, near Sedbury, and are brackish pasture which overlies alluvia soil. They lie adjacent to the lower, tidal part of the

River Wye The River Wye (; cy, Afon Gwy ) is the Longest rivers of the United Kingdom, fourth-longest river in the UK, stretching some from its source on Plynlimon in mid Wales to the Severn estuary. For much of its length the river forms part of Wal ...

, and are unique in Gloucestershire. The area is made up of a collection of fields which are crossed by rhines and water-filled ditches. This pastureland, which is flooded by spring tides (the Wye being a tidal river), is traditionally grazed in the summer months.

Flora

Mud rush, meadow barley, red fescue,

marsh foxtail ''Alopecurus geniculatus'' is a species of grass known by the common name water foxtail or marsh foxtail. It is native to much of Eurasia and introduced into North America, South America, and Australia. It grows in moist areas. ''Alopecurus ge ...

and the nationally rare

bulbous foxtail In botany, a bulb is structurally a short Plant stem, stem with fleshy leaf, leaves or leaf basesBell, A.D. 1997. ''Plant form: an illustrated guide to flowering plant morphology''. Oxford University Press, Oxford, U.K. that function as food st ...

flourish in the pasture. There is a variety of saltmarsh plants such as

sea arrowgrass ''Triglochin maritima'' is a species of flowering plant in the arrowgrass family Juncaginaceae. It is found in brackish marshes, freshwater marshes, wet sandy beaches, fens, damp grassland and bogs. It has a circumboreal distribution, occurring ...

sea milkwort ''Lysimachia maritima'' is a plant species belonging to the family Primulaceae. It was previously called ''Glaux maritima'', the only species in the monotypic genus ''Glaux''. The species has a number of common names, including sea milkwort, sea ...

sea aster ''Tripolium pannonicum'', called sea aster or seashore aster and often known by the synonyms ''Aster tripolium'' or ''Aster pannonicus'', is a flowering plant, native to Eurasia and northern Africa, that is confined in its distribution to salt ma ...

greater sea-spurrey ''Spergularia media'' (syn. ''S. maritima'') is a species of flowering plant in the family Caryophyllaceae known by the common names media sandspurry and greater sea-spurrey. It is native to Eurasia and the Mediterranean, where it grows in many ...

, and lesser sea-spurrey. The rare narrow-leaved marsh dandelions (''Taraxacum palustre'' and ''T. anglicum'') are also recorded. Where areas become marshy grassland other species are found. The drainage ditches support a separate range of plants. The brackish water-crowfoot (''Ranunculus baudotii'') may be found at the boundaries of some of the fields.

Fauna

Redshank and lapwing breed on the site. Several species of damselfly flourish along the draining ditches include the azure damselfly.

References

External links

Natural England
(SSSI information)
Natural England SSSI information on the citation

Natural England SSSI information on the Pennsylvania Fields, Sedbury units
Sites of Special Scientific Interest in Gloucestershire Sites of Special Scientific Interest notified in 1985 Tidenham {{England-SSSI-stub