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| North Pennines |
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| Habitat: Upland mixed ashwoods (of national significance) |
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This describes woods on base-rich soils in the north and west, where ash is a major species. The canopy can vary, but the ground flora remains similar.
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The broad-leaved woodlands on the Carboniferous Limestone in the upland areas aredistinctly northern in character. Ash is abundant as the main canopy tree along with Wychelm, but birch, sessile oak, rowan and bird cherry are also common. The ground flora is oftenherb-rich, with dog's mercury, primrose, bluebell and wood anemone frequently found,together with species of a more northern distribution such as wood cranesbill, globeflowerand marsh hawk's-beard. These Pennine woodlands also tend to be fern-rich, due to thehigher humidity, and can include hard shield-fern, lady fern, male fern and broad buckler-fern. Wood avens, dog violet and wood-sorrel are also regular features of the woodland groundflora in this community.
Many of these northern ashwoods can be found as a series of ancient semi-natural woodlandsoccupying deep gorges, with limestone outcrops, along the Tees, Wear and Derwent Valleys. There are a number of fine examples in Teesdale, such as the Baldersdale Woodlands andShipley and Great Woods, and also in Wear Valley District, where Slit Woods and BackstoneBank and Baal Hill Woods are testaments to the wildwood of the North Pennines.
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