A Paradise for Botanists: Wild Flowers in Ancient Woodland

Herb Paris Paris quadrifolia. Also known as lover's knot or devil-in-a-bush. (Poisonous).  Found in Shadwell Wood and West Wood.

Two ancient woods in north west Essex, Shadwell Wood and West Wood, are bright with wild flowers at this time of year. As you might expect, there are bluebells, lesser celandines and wood anemones in flower now.  But these woods are also known for their rarer plants, and these include wild flowers that are nationally uncommon, such as the true oxlip Primula elatior.  This flower can only found in this part of the country because of the local soil, which is chalky boulder clay.  The oxlip is found in damp woodlands.

Wild Oxlip

Because of this, Shadwell Wood and West Wood have long been known as botanists' woods.  The earliest records for West Wood, for example, date from the 1200s, when the land was owned by the Hospitallers (also known as the Knights of St John). It's said that they used gather medicinal herbs here.

Bugle

A note on my calendar says 'visit Shadwell Wood and/or West Wood in late April/early May'. It's a note I write on my calendars every year, although I never have the time to visit both woods. Last year I visited Shadwell Wood - and I visited it, too, in 2013 writing about it here. So this year I decided to visit West Wood.

I found the wild oxlips glowing in the sunlit rides and glades. They were a beautiful sight.  Perhaps Shakespeare had a wood like West Wood in mind when he wrote 'A Midsummer Night's Dream':

I know a bank where the wild thyme blows,
Where oxlips and the nodding violets grows,
Quite over-canopied with luscious woodbine,
With sweet musk-roses and with eglantine.

But even if Shakespeare had visited the oxlip woods of this area, a clear identification of Primula elatior wasn't made until the 1800s. This was done by the Essex scientist and horticulturist Henry Doubleday working with Charles Darwin.  They recognised that the Bardfield oxlip (as they called it - after the village of Great Bardfield about five miles away from West Wood) wasn't just a primrose/cowslip hybrid but a true species. Primula elatior was known as the Bardfield oxlip for many years afterwards - and this is a local name still in use today.

I didn't see any honeybees on the oxlips. Some will be visiting, but there were also fields of oilseed rape in flower around West Wood and I suspect most of the honeybees will be heading straight for that.

Among the oxlips in West Wood were the first early purple orchids.  Many of these were just starting to flower...

Deep in the woods were two ponds in a glade. Swimming just below the surface were several great crested newts (apologies for the quality of the photo but there was a sudden hailstorm in the sunshine at this point creating ripples all across the surface of the water).

I was delighted to see my first orange tip butterflies of the year, and one of their favourite flowers, the cuckoo flower, growing freely in the rides...

I also saw dog's mercury and wood violets. Wood barley Hordelymus europaeus, which is rare in Essex, can be found here, but to be honest I don't know much about this plant.  I imagine it can be found later in the summer. Adder's-tongue fern also grows in West Wood later in the year, as do more orchids, including the greater butterfly and the common spotted.

As to birdsong - I heard chiffchaffs, wrens, song thrushes, blackbirds and other familiar song birds. The information board at the entrance to the wood identified redpolls as a bird to look out for, but I didn't see any on my visit.  At times I was distracted anyway from the birdsong by the planes going overhead - West Wood is on the flight path to Stansted.  It was such a shame.  I don't know what sort of damage planes flying low over an ancient woodland can do to it, but it must be some. I hope any proposed airport expansion doesn't happen because that will inevitably worsen the impact. The contrast between the planes flying over and the planes not there was huge - when the planes had gone the wood was truly peaceful once again.

Pendulous sedge.

Around the edge of the wood there was evidence of visits by deer.  Their tracks were everywhere. The wood is managed to keep the deer from munching the wildflowers by the erection of chestnut paling and brushwood fencing.

When I left, I promised myself I'll visit one of the oxlip woods again next year. It really is a place to appreciate spring.