The woodland flora of the Forest of Writtle and surrounding area
overlooked elsewhere.
Wood Meadow-grass Poa nemoralis: Common and widespread in shady hedgerows and wood margins
throughout the area but like so many grasses it is very scarce in the ancient woodlands, Great Edney
and Barrow Woods being the only ones of the eight forest springs from which it has been recorded.
Elsewhere, it is common in more recently planted woods such as Bushy Wood, The Grove, The Hyde
Lake and even Elmfield Farm Copse; also Horsfrith, Sandpit Wood and Skreens Park Wood.
Wood Melick Melica uniflora: This appears to be a very scarce grass in this area, records being
confined to Lower Belt (South Wood), Horsfrith and a shady hedge bank at Delamas, Beggar Hill
(TL635006). Hard to believe but also hard to overlook.
Tufted Hair-grass Deschampsia cespitosa: Common, generally in small quantity, in damp rough
grassland and stream banks in woodland throughout the area. Recorded from Ellis Wood, Park Ponds
Spring, Hockley Shaw, Writtle Park Wood, Mill Green Common and College, Fryerning, Bushy, King,
South, Lee, Skreens and Nightingale Woods. Two plants found on the edge of College Wood in June
2003 were attributable to ssp. parviflora.
Wavy Hair-grass Deschampsia flexuosa: Common only in a small area of strongly acidic soils on
Mill Green Common and in nearby Stoneymore Wood. Within this area there are patches of flexuosa
grassland close to The Viper pub (TL641017), in the heather-grass land area (TL637013) and in recently
coppiced woodland behind the nearby cottages (TL637014). Scattered plants elsewhere, including
Parson's Spring, Birch Spring, Ellis Wood and Fryerning Wood.
Early Hair-grassyl/rapraecox: Surprisingly scarce, the only records coming from Great Edney Wood,
the heather-grassland at Mill Green Common, Hylands Park (TL684045) and Fryerning Churchyard.
Possibly overlooked.
Velvet Bent Agrostis canina; A grass of damp acidic grassland: frequent throughout the Forest on
suitable soils and occasional in woodland, having been recorded from The Mores, Mill Green Common
and Fryerning Wood.
Brown Bent Agrostis vinealis; My only record of this species comes from a dry acidic bank at The
Hyde Lake in June 2001. Possibly overlooked.
Wood Small-reed Calamagrostis epigejos; This scarce and declining Essex species was recorded from
Park Ponds Spring in Jermyn and still flourishes there while a further small colony was found on the
edge of Ellis Wood, abutting Chalk Hill, in 1999.
Hairy Brome Bromopsis ramosa; Common and widespread in damp shady habitats throughout the
area but, surprisingly, appears to be absent from all eight Forest Springs and most, of the adjacent
ancient woodlands, the exceptions being King and South Woods. Recorded from all the copses on the
boulder-clay.
False Brome Brachypodium sylvaticum; Has a similar distribution to the above - being equally scarce
in ancient woodlands - but is usually more plentiful in those woods where both occur.
Bearded Couch Elymus caninus: Very scarce. Nightingale, Skreens and Skreens Park Woods are the
only coppices from which it has been recorded but there are further records from Tanhouse Mead,
Beggar Hill in 1991 and 1998 and the Radley Green-Cooksmill Green bridleway (TL633063) on frequent
occasions during the 1990s.
Essex Naturalist (New Series) 20 (2003)
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