Higher Plants
Epping Forest as a wood-pasture system has a rich mosaic of habitats in a relatively small area.
Woodland, grassland, heathland and aquatic habitats are the major types present. However, all these
habitats grade into each other, the interface between the different habitats providing for a rich variety
of plant species. The most profound influence on the flora is the Forest's wood-pasture history. The
cutting of the trees for wood and the grazing and browsing of livestock over many centuries is the
reason for the presence or absence of many plant species. Grazing has been most important in allowing
the continued existence of many plant species that would otherwise have been ousted by competition
from more vigorous plants, trees and shrubs and also eliminating other species susceptible to grazing
pressure. For the purposes of this book. I have divided this chapter into four sections, each of which
deals with a brief, historical review of the habitat (or sub-habitat) involved, a discussion of the plant
species found there and in some cases I have included a list of plants from a recently surveyed site,
to give an indication of those species that can be found in the Forest today. In the text I have included
many historical records. Most of these are located to specific sites within the Forest. This account deals
with the physical Forest, but it must be remembered that, in the past, areas have been lost to enclosures
and yet other areas added to the Conservators' jurisdiction, which were formerly not considered part of
the physical Forest (i.e. ground where commoners' beasts were not permitted to graze).
1) Woodland: Ancient Woodland
Pollarded Woodland
Coppiced Woodland
Native Trees and Shrubs
Notable Forest Trees
Secondary Woodland
Introduced and Planted Trees and Shrubs
2) Grassland and Heathland: Neutral Grassland
Acid Grassland, Grass Heath, Wet Heath and Bog
3) Aquatic: Marsh, Pond and Streamside
4) Miscellaneous: Enclosures
Green Lanes
Roadside Verges
Disturbed Ground
Introduced Plants
1) Woodland
Ancient Woodland: Pollarded
A review of the history of pollarding is to be found on pages 18 to 26.
(Tables referred to in the text are located on pages 81 to 85)
A visit to formerly pollarded woodland in Epping Forest today, reveals in most places, a dense
interlocking canopy of Beech trees on sites where the underlying geology is gravel, or of Oak and
Hornbeam where the geology is clay. Beneath the pollard trees there can be virtually no vegetation,
just a thick layer of partly decomposed leaves under the Beeches, and Holly bushes, some now of a
substantial size beneath the Oaks and Hornbeams, and less often under Beech. To the botanist, this
presents a rather species-poor picture. This, however, has not always been the case. Up to the mid- 19th
century when the Forest was managed as a wood-pasture, the cyclical cutting of the pollard trees
allowed light to reach the ground and this in turn would have allowed the growth of herbaceous plants.
Sadly no-one recorded the species of plants found in areas of recently pollarded woodland in the Forest
in the 19th century. The best we can probably do is to look at areas where, by accident or design, old
pollard woodland has been felled, for example after the drought year of 1976. Lords Bushes, an
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