Article by Tim Corner
When you step from a field into a wood you enter a completely different habitat to the one you have just left. Most of the plants will be different and have different requirements to be able to survive. Woodland plants may be shade tolerant, shade bearing, require leaf litter and mulch to successfully germinate and grow in the early stages and need the particular micro-climate woodland provides. For example, you are unlikely to find Wood Anemone in the middle of a field. Similarly you are unlikely to find Fairy Flax in the middle of a dense wood.
Many of the typical woodland ground flora of old or ancient woodland can be seen flowering in the spring, before the canopy becomes closed and the leaves on the trees have fully emerged. Spring flowers may include the Wood Anemone, Moschatel, Early Dog-violet and Herb Paris. Many of these plants either wither away after flowering or are difficult to spot without their flowers. Consequently, most woodland surveys are conducted in spring to ensure these plants, if present, are not missed.
However, even experienced surveyors may still overlook some uncommon plants. Wood Meadow-grass is one of these. Most surveyors will be on the look out for plants that can indicate ancient woodland. Most woods will also contain some plants found more commonly in the fields. These may be found at the gateway, clearings, along wide rides and on the edges of the wood. Often surveyors, who will concentrate on plants characteristic of the site they are surveying, will ignore the more common field species. Among the most abundant plant found in fields are grasses. There are a few woodland grass species and these generally look different to a trained surveyor and will be recorded by them, for example, False Brome and Wood Melick.
Wood Meadow-grass is a very unassuming grass that mainly occurs in small patches in old woodland. It has characteristics, which are very similar to both Rye and Annual Meadow-grass - two of the most common plants in Britain. Your lawn will probably consist largely of these two species. If you have walked on grass today, you have probably walked on some Rye or Annual Meadow-grass. Wood Meadow-grass doesn’t stand out as being different to the grasses in the fields and many surveyors will march past it in search of Solomon’s Seal and other ancient woodland plants.
If they do happen to stop and try to identify it they will discover it can be difficult to do so and will often remain unsure, particularly if it is not in flower. Superficially, when not in flower, it looks like Rye - it can be shiny-ish, much the same colour and relative size of the leaf blades, and has small ligules. It also has features in common with Meadow-grasses such as boat shaped tips to the leaf blades, but also has the leaves coming out at angles more like that of Rye and Bent Grasses. Perhaps it is Common Bent - that has small ligules, and maybe the boat shaped tips are just imaginary, after all they are very small. But Rye is similar. Perhaps its something completely different and…. by which time the day is drifting away and the need to complete the survey becomes pressing. For a surveyor, there is nothing worse than spending ages identifying one plant that turns out to be something extremely common. The result of a confidence crisis. If the plant is Rye you may have wasted your time. If it is Wood Meadow-grass you have not.
BRERC surveyors are trained to know how to identify most plants as well as the need to record everything if necessary and how to establish the relative importance of what they are looking at.
One of our call-out surveyors, Ellen McDouall, recently updated a key to identify grasses. We have been testing it out.
During a BRERC staff-training day on woodland surveying, we visited an old wood in Bath and North East Somerset. Someone keen on wildlife has recently acquired the wood and we took the opportunity they gave us to provide essential training, whilst at the same time updating records for the site.
One of the first things we spotted was a patch of Wood Meadow-grass, not yet in flower, and armed with the new key Ellen had produced, two surveyors unfamiliar with the grass were asked to identify it. Working methodically through the key they answered Wood Meadow-grass. Even experienced surveyors have difficulty identifying it. Well done Ellen.