Middle Wood, Offton

Also within

Suffolk County

Condition (Natural England)

Habitats

Ancient woodland, Coppiced woodland

Geology & landscape

Rock Type: Chalk, Glacial Till

Landscape processes: Glacial

Description

Description Middle Wood is a complete medieval wood with eastern and western extensions of ancient secondary woodland. These differ very little in structure and composition from the primary woodland and both are known to have occurred before 1840. The eastern extension was first recorded in 1628. The neighbouring Tollemache Hall Groveis also included in the site. The wood contains semi natural stands of several different wood types and is predominantly of coppice with standards structure; several hectares to the south are still within a coppice rotation. The main stand type is ash maple on wet boulder clay. The varying chalk content of the clay is reflected in the exceptionally diverse ground flora, which contains many species typical of ancient woodland, including one locally rare plant. Oak Quercus robur is the dominant standard and shows an unusually wide range of age structure from 35 to 300 years old. This forms an open canopy with scattered Cherry Prunus avium and some suckering elm Ulmus sp. along the wood margins. The coppice layer consists of ash Fraxinus excelsior, field maple Acer campestre, hazel Corylus avellana and sallow Salix caprea, with areas of small leaved lime Tilia cordata to the north west and Ash, wych elm Ulmus glabra and numerous aspen Populus tremula on wetter ground to the south west. Other species include scattered common hawthorn Crataegus monogyna, midland hawthorn Crataegus laevigata and wild crab apple Malus sylvestris. It is also one of the few recorded sites in East Anglia for wild pear Pyrus pyraster. The ground flora is dominated by dog's mercury Mercurialis perennis with bramble Rubus fruticosus agg., bluebell Hyacinthoides non-scripta, wood anemone Anemone nemorosa, primrose Primula vulgaris, sanicle Sanicula europaea and the orchids early purple orchid Orchis mascula common twayblade Neottia ovata and butterfly orchid Platanthera chlorantha. Other notable species present include herb paris Paris quadrifolia. Nettle leaved bellflower Campanula trachelium, woodruff Galium odoratum, hairy woodrush Luzula pilosa, wood melick Melica uniflora and the locally rare grass wood barley Horaelymus europaeus. Tollemache Hall Grove is predominantly composed of coppiced small leaved Lime, but there is an interesting transition to the ash maple composition of Middle Wood towards the east.

Species mentioned