Grass Wood

Saturday 9th June 2018

Leaders: Bruce Brown, Neil Barrett and Sheila Wynn

A large group of 29, split fairly evenly between BBG and the Wild Flower Society, set off from the car park on the western edge of Grass Wood. We formed two mixed groups, one a few minutes in front of the other, to ease congestion on the narrow woodland paths. I was struck immediately by the large quantity of Wood Sedge, which seemed to be everywhere, often growing over 50cm tall. Of the seven sedges seen on the day, the other one of note was the Pale Sedge, rather less common in West Yorkshire but occasional in the clearings here in Grass Wood.

We climbed gradually southeastwards through the wood, noting Buckthorn and Spindle. Both Water and Wood Avens were abundant in this part of the wood and their relatively common hybrid was also found in several places. Dotted around we saw Lily-of-the-valley, some still in flower, and passed one example of Nettle-leaved Bellflower, yet to bloom. On the edge of a rocky outcrop, we found Soft Downy-rose. Bruce pointed out Horseshoe Vetch, Angular Solomon’s-seal and Hairy Rock-cress among the limestone boulders. We glanced across at the canopy of Rock Whitebeam leaves. This tree has been planted elsewhere in the woods but this was a self-sown specimen.

Throughout the walk, there was much discussion of the salient features of the grasses we saw, notably Crested Hair-grass, False Oat-grass, Yellow Oat-grass, Meadow Oat-grass and Downy Oat-grass. The differences in inflorescence, growth habit and leaf blades of the oat-grasses were pointed out. Another discussion concerned the differences between Spreading Meadow-grass, described by various sources as under-recorded, and Smooth Meadow-grass, for which it is often mistaken. Spreading Meadow-grass, often glaucous in appearance, usually has solitary culms arising from extensive rhizomes and both its glumes are three-nerved, whereas Smooth Meadow-grass is usually taller, tufted with short rhizomes and purplish-looking, known in the USA as Kentucky Blue-grass. Mountain Melick was also spotted in a couple of places.

Next we came to a clearing, where the acidic soil contained clay and thus retained moisture. Here were many ferns, including Lady-fern, Male-fern, Golden-scaled Male-fern, Lemon-scented Fern and Hard Fern. We saw Hairy Wood-rush, also present elsewhere in Grass Wood, although, surprisingly, we did not see any Great Wood-rush on this visit. Nearby was Herb-Paris and Bruce pointed out the red coloration at the base of Perennial Rye-grass shoots, a useful identifying vegetative characteristic.

In a former lead mining area, we were shown Downy Currant, hard to distinguish from the more common Red Currant, especially as this is normally done by looking at the flowers in early spring. Brittle Bladder-fern was also found in this area. Before lunch we took a stroll to the more open country of Bastow Wood, a pasture wood. Here we found Common Milkwort, Mountain Pansy and both Field and Hairy Wood-rush, the former having round seeds and the latter more elliptical ones. Tawny Sedge was spotted by the trackside. Two more plants, namely Flea Sedge and Mouse-ear Hawkweed were discovered, as is often the case, by those sitting down for lunch – botany while chewing on a sandwich!

Our next plant of interest was a hybrid between the Spring and Alpine Cinquefoils, known as Yorkshire Cinquefoil in these parts. Recorded in very few places in the British Isles, it is intermediate between the parents in terms of its general habit, flower size and stipules. Diving back into the woods, we came across False Oxlip by one of the woodland tracks created by tree-felling. Grass Wood, as many others, had been planted with conifers after the Second World War and a 30-year programme to replace them with broad-leaved species has just been completed by current custodians of the wood, the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust.

Going back further in time, the woods had produced timber for lead smelting. Logs were subjected to heat in ‘chop kilns’ in order to dry them, so that they could later be burned at a higher temperature. In the remains of one such kiln, we found a few fronds of Hard Shield-fern. An unexpected bonus on the way back down the hillside was a white-flowered variety of Bugle and we finished the 5km walk on another high in the form of Bird’s-nest Orchid, several spikes of which were growing under a stand of Beech.

Text by Andrew

Photographs by Tom