Berkshire: Bracknell Forest

19 July 2013
All day                                      OS map 175 Reading & Windsor

 This area is entirely on acid sands with many species seldom seen in the south-east, although some are common in the north and west of Britain.  The forest is almost entirely planted to pines, but there are wide open rides and wetland interest in pools, streams and bogs.

We parked at the Swinley Forest Discovery Centre (aka The Lookout) SU876661 off the B3430 on the south side of Bracknell (£4 all day).  We set off along a wide ride going east by the Go Ape! Centre and soon got away from the hubbub of many school parties.  The ride traverses pine forest with an understory of rhododendron Rhododendron ponticum and bracken Pteridium aquilinum, pendulous sedge Carex pendula and a number of sweet chestnut trees Castanea sativa which were currently in full flower.

Ride through Bracknell Forest

Sweet chestnut in flower

Only a few rowans Sorbus aucuparia and silver birches Betula pendula remained from what must have been the original vegetation.  Conspicuous tufts of purple moor grass Molinia caerulea were only just coming into bud, their ligules reduced to a ring of hairs making a simple check.  Hard Blechnum spicant, lady Athyrium filix-femina and hart's-tongue Phyllitis scolopendrium ferns marked the lines of ditches and streams.

Lady fern

Hard fern

Other frequent plants along this walk were bilberry Vaccinium myrtillus, greater birdsfoot trefoil Lotus pedunculatus, heather Calluna vulgaris, bell heather Erica cinerea, moor sedge Carex binervis, with its distinct flattened tufts, slender St. John's-wort Hypericum pulchrum and wavy hair-grass Deschampsia flexuosa.

Bell heather

Greater birdsfoot trefoil

We kept straight on across other major rides at Penny Hill until we almost reached the A322, when the track bent south towards the scenic Mill Pond, which is really more of a small lake.  The clear water sported a lot of white water-lily Nymphaea alba and alternate water-milfoil Myriophyllum alternifolium, but there were rarer wetland plants in the bordering marshes, while the place was abuzz with dragonflies of many species and wood ants colonised the dry banks under trees.  We spotted a black skipjack beetle Synaptus filiformis on the sedges.

Mill Pond

Here was bulbous rush Juncus bulbosus, its stem bases showing the eponymous swelling.

Bulbous rush

Cross-leaved heath Erica tetralix here came in for the first time with shrubs of bog myrtle Myrica gale and star sedge Carex echinata.

Bog myrtle by Mill Pond.

In the greater tussock sedge Carex paniculata marsh stood the yellow spikes of bog asphodel Narthecium ossifragum.

Bog asphodel

Nearby pools had marsh bedstraw Galium palustre and lots of bog pondweed Potamogeton polygonifolius.  The leaves of some of the latter had the white stem remains of the bog beacon fungus Mitrula paludosa, which earlier would have had striking yellow tips.

Bog pondweed (remains of bog beacon fungi at top of picture)

Notable dragonflies were the emerald Lestes sponsa and small red damselflies Ceriagrion tenellum, black darters Sympetrum danae and the golden-ringed Cordulegaster boltonii and emperor dragonflies Anax imperator.

Emerald damselfly male

Black darter female

Small red damselfly (a Bracknell Forest BAP species)

We continued south along rides bordered with marsh cudweed Gnaphalium uliginosum to Rapley Lake, a slightly larger waterbody and also scenic.  We found a place on the bank to have our lunch by bulrush Typha latifolia, gipsywort Lycopus europaeus and water-plantain Alisma plantago-aquatica, under alder Alnus glutinosa with galls of the uncommon midge Dasineura tortilis and the mite Eriophyes laevis, and leaf-mines of the sawfly Fenusa dohrnii.  We were closely watched by families of coots and mallards on the water.

Rapley Lake

Mallard and duckling on Rapley Lake

More notable, however, were the large colonies of marsh St. John's-wort Hypericum elodes and bottle sedge Carex rostrata.

Marsh St. John's-wort

Bottle sedge

Along paths south of the lake we came across sand spurrey Spergularia rubra, blinks Montia fontana and a large patch of leaves in a wet hollow of what appeared to be marsh violet Viola palustris.

Leaves of marsh violet?

Sand spurrey

There was also much of a distinctive-looking bramble with pink flowers which we had been seeing throughout this forest.  We later determined it to be Rubus plicatus.

A common heathland bramble Rubus plicatus

Although rather early and dry for fungi we came across isolated examples of two species - snakeskin grisette Amanita ceciliae and The Flirt Russula vesca.

Snakeskin grisette

The Flirt

We returned to near the lake to take the large ride west to Lower Star Post, a rather barren sandy track that threw up little new except for buckshorn plantain Plantago coronopus, sand sedge Carex arenaria and heath woodrush Luzula multiflora, variety congesta with its globular flower-heads.  We also saw the black-and-yellow hoverfly Chrysotoxum festivum.

Heath woodrush var. congesta

From this major confusing junction of many rides and paths, we eventually managed to select the one we wanted going SSW, a continuation of Windsor Ride.  This becomes a tarmac lane and runs beside a secure fence around MoD property, but the track-sides and short turf had further interesting species.  These included a small plant of vervain Verbena officinalis, a cluster of pearl everlasting just coming into flower, cut-leaved bramble Rubus laciniatus and broad-leaved helleborine Epipactis helleborine.

Pearl everlasting

Vervain

Cut-leaved bramble

Mat grass Nardus stricta (last year's dried flowering stems standing out more than this year's flowers, because the empty glumes stand out like a comb on one side of the stem) and heath grass Danthonia decumbens were frequent among the common bent Agrostis capillaris and silver hair-grass Aira caryophyllea, and here there were also dark purple-tinged plants of the eyebright Euphrasia micrantha.  Plants nearby of the common eyebright Euphrasia nemorosa had the orange rust Coleosporium tussilaginis.

Heath and mat grasses

Rust on common eyebright

We eventually took a ride on the left down to Wishmoor Bottom, along which runs the Berks/Surrey border.  Below the trees lay a large open heath beneath a line of pylons.  Here the heather was in flower, as it had not been in the wooded areas, where bell heather was much more common.

Heather at Wishmoor Bottom

Here the rare silver-studded blue butterflies were flying (another BAP species).

Silver-studded blue

Below this dry heath was the bog that occupies Wishmoor Bottom itself.  The very rare crested buckler fern Dryopteris cristata is supposed to grow here, although mostly on the Surrey side of the border, only a very few plants having ever been found on the Berks side.  We did not find any, although there were lots of narrow buckler fern Dryopteris carthusiana both in the shade of trees and out in the open bog.

Narrow buckler fern

Here we saw round-leaved sundew Drosera rotundifolia, common cotton-grass Eriophorum angustifolium, marsh willowherb Epilobium palustre, heath spotted orchid Dactylorhiza maculata, bog asphodel, cross-leaved heath and wood sage Teucrium scorodonia.

View across Wishmoor Bottom

Marsh willowherb

Bog asphodel among cross-leaved heath, Wishmoor Bottom

Heath spotted orchid

Round-leaved sundew

From Wishmoor Bottom we walked back to Lower Star Post and north from there back to our starting-point.  A new pond near the Reservoirs was choked with alien parrot's-feather Myriophyllum aquaticum, perhaps introduced with white water-lily planted there.  It is to be hoped it does not spread to natural water-bodies in the forest.

Parrot's-feather

Close to The Lookout we passed a shrub of bladder senna Colutea arborescens, another alien species established particularly in the London area, but despite the pine and rhododendron plantations we had generally seen mainly native species all day, making up a good representative range of dry and wet heathland plants.