A bluebell wood is a woodland that in springtime has a carpet of flowering bluebells ( Hyacinthoides non-scripta ) underneath a newly forming leaf canopy. The thicker the summer canopy, the more the competitive ground-cover is suppressed, encouraging a dense carpet of bluebells, whose leaves mature and die down by early summer. Other common woodland plants which accompany bluebells include the yellow rattle and the wood anemone.
Bluebell woods are found in all parts of Great Britain [1] and Ireland, as well as elsewhere in Europe. Bluebells are a common indicator species for ancient woodlands, [2] so bluebell woods are likely to date back to at least 1600. [3] Some introduced portions of bluebell woods can occur in places where they've been heavily naturalised such as the Pacific Northwest, Mid-Atlantic Region, and British Columbia.
Gerard Manley Hopkins, an English poet, was very keen on the plant as revealed by these lines of his poem "May Magnificat" [4]
And azuring-over greybell makes
Wood banks and brakes wash wet like lakes
In his journal entry for 9 May 1871 Hopkins says:
In the little wood opposite the light they stood in blackish spreads or sheddings like spots on a snake. The heads are then like thongs and solemn in grain and grape-colour. But in the clough through the light they come in falls of sky-colour washing the brows and slacks of the ground with vein-blue, thickening at the double, vertical themselves and the young grass and brake-fern combed vertical, but the brake struck the upright of all this with winged transomes. It was a lovely sight. - The bluebells in your hand baffle you with their inscape, made to every sense. If you draw your fingers through them they are lodged and struggle with a shock of wet heads; the long stalks rub and click and flatten to a fan on one another like your fingers themselves would when you passed the palms hard across one another, making a brittle rub and jostle like the noise of a hurdle strained by leaning against; then there is the faint honey smell and in the mouth the sweet gum when you bite them.
Hyacinthoides non-scripta is a bulbous perennial plant found in Atlantic areas from the north-western part of the Iberian Peninsula to the British Isles, and also frequently used as a garden plant. It is known in English as the common bluebell or simply bluebell, a name which is used in Scotland to refer to the harebell, Campanula rotundifolia. In spring, H. non-scripta produces a nodding, one-sided inflorescence of 5–12 tubular, sweet-scented violet–blue flowers, with strongly recurved tepals, and 3–6 long, linear, basal leaves.
Hyacinthoides hispanica, the Spanish bluebell or wood hyacinth, is a spring-flowering bulbous perennial native to the Iberian Peninsula. It is one of around a dozen species in the genus Hyacinthoides, others including the common bluebell in northwestern Europe, and the Italian bluebell further east in the Mediterranean region.
Hyacinthoides is a genus of flowering plants in the family Asparagaceae, known as bluebells.
Chailey is a village and civil parish in the Lewes District of East Sussex, England. It is located 7 miles north of Lewes, on the A272 road from Winchester to Canterbury. The Prime Meridian passes just to the east of Chailey.
Castle Eden Dene is a Site of Special Scientific Interest and National Nature Reserve in the Easington district of County Durham, England. It is located mostly in Peterlee, between the A19 and A1086 roads.
Postlebury Wood is an 87 hectare biological Site of Special Scientific Interest south of Trudoxhill in Somerset, notified in 1987.
Cogley Wood is a 60.7 hectare biological Site of Special Scientific Interest east of Bruton in Somerset, notified in 1987.
Bluebell Wood in the London Borough of Haringey is a small remnant of one of the ancient woodlands of London. It is situated at the end of Winton Avenue and is bordered by Muswell Hill golf course, Winton Avenue and the Golf Course Allotments. Just over an acre in size, it is open at all times and is a popular place for local people to walk their dogs.
The English Lowlands beech forests is a terrestrial ecoregion in the United Kingdom, as defined by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) and the European Environment Agency (EEA). It covers 45,600 km2 (17,600 sq mi) of Southern England, approximately as far as the border with Devon and South Wales in the west, into the Severn valley in the north-west, into the East Midlands in the north, and up to the border of Norfolk in the north-east. The WWF code for this ecoregion is PA0421.
Goddards Green is a hamlet in the Mid Sussex District of West Sussex, England. It is in the civil parish of Hurstpierpoint and Sayers Common, and lies just off the A2300 road 1.7 miles (2.8 km) west of Burgess Hill.
Osmia bicolor, the two-coloured mason-bee, is a Palearctic species of bee in the genus Osmia. It is outstanding amongst other megachilid bees in that it nests in empty snail shells.
Ornamental bulbous plants, often called ornamental bulbs or just bulbs in gardening and horticulture, are herbaceous perennials grown for ornamental purposes, which have underground or near ground storage organs. Botanists distinguish between true bulbs, corms, rhizomes, stem tubers and tuberous roots, any of which may be termed "bulbs" in horticulture. Bulb species usually lose their upper parts during adverse conditions such as summer drought and heat or winter cold. The bulb's storage organs contain moisture and nutrients that are used to survive these adverse conditions in a dormant state. When conditions become favourable the reserves sustain a new growth cycle. In addition, bulbs permit vegetative or asexual multiplication in these species. Ornamental bulbs are used in parks and gardens and as cut flowers.
Grass Wood is an ancient woodland of 88 hectares in Wharfedale, North Yorkshire, England, that has an exceptional ground flora of woodland wildflowers.
Boscastle to Widemouth is a coastal Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) in Cornwall, England, noted for its biological and geological characteristics. The Dizzard dwarf oak woodland is unique and of international importance for its lichen communities, with 131 species recorded.
Frithy and Chadacre Woods is a 28.7-hectare (71-acre) biological Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) in the parishes of Lawshall and Shimpling in Suffolk, England.
Hyacinthoides × massartiana is a hybrid species produced by crosses between the common bluebell, H. non-scripta and the Spanish bluebell, H. hispanica. H. × massartiana fills a spectrum of variation which connects the two parental species.
Hanger Wood is an ancient woodland and Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) in the parish of Stagsden, Bedfordshire in the United Kingdom. Situated approximately one kilometre east of the village of Stagsden, the 24.12 hectares woodland was declared a SSSI in 1988, being described by Natural England as "one of the best remaining examples of wet ash-maple woodland in Bedfordshire". The name "Hanger" comes from Old English/Anglo-Saxon term for "wood on a hill" or "wooded hill", applied to Hanger Wood due to its situation on a northwest-facing slope of a narrow ridge. Commenting on the wood's character, A. Simco said in 1984 that "It has been strongly influenced by the geology and topography of the area, particularly by the south-west/north-east boulder clay ridge along which the parish boundary runs."
Dinmore Hill Woods is a designated Site of Special Scientific Interest in Herefordshire, England. It is an extensive area of mixed native broadleaved woodlands overlying rocks of the Old Red Sandstone. It forms one of the largest continuous blocks of deciduous woodland in this part of Herefordshire. The soils which range from acid to alkaline and front wet to dry gives rise to a diverse woodland structure.
Old Copse, Beenham is an 8-hectare (20-acre) biological Site of Special Scientific Interest south of Beenham in Berkshire. The site is private land with no public access.
Nance Wood is a woodland Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) near Portreath, west Cornwall. The site was first notified in 1951 for its almost pure dwarf, sessile oak coppiced woodland, good bryophyte flora and Irish spurge, which is found in only two localities in Britain.