Coed Pentre (Pentre Wood)

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Powys County

Description

Description The site is a good example of ash-wych elm woodland with abundant hybrid oak. There is a good mixture of ages of trees and a well developed understorey. About ninety species of woodland flowering plants occur, including a locally uncommon species in Montgomery. Pentre Wood occupies a hill-slope of south-eastern aspect and lies between 152 and 183 metres (500 and 600 feet) above sea level. Cattle grazing currently affects part of the site, but grazing is predominantly light or absent. The wood is largely dominated by ash, but with abundant wych elm and hybrid oak. Field maple is widely distributed, as is sycamore and there is a fairly dense understorey of hazel present in much of the site. hawthorn and blackthorn also occur in this shrub-layer. The shrub-layer is further developed by dense bramble Rubus fruticosus thickets and in such areas nettle Urtica dioica is abundant. Elsewhere there is a locally diverse ground-layer, typically with species such as dog's mercury Mercurialis perennis, wood avens Geum urbanum, ground-ivy Glechoma hederacea and yellow archangel Lamiastrum galeobdolon. The grass, wood millet Milium effusum, a plant which in Montgomery is confined to a few base-rich woods, is well represented. Wetter areas support meadowsweet Filipendula ulmaria and wood sanicle Sanicula europaea. Opposite-leaved golden-saxifrage Chrysosplenium oppositifolium also occurs.

Species mentioned