Quendon Wood

Also within

Essex County

Condition (Natural England)

Habitats

Bracken scrub, Coppiced woodland

Geology & landscape

Rock Type: Glacial Till

Landscape processes: Glacial

Description

Area,32.1 hectares 79.3 ac. Description Quendon Wood is an ancient coppice with standards woodland supporting an unusually rich and varied flora associated with a range of soil types. The pedunculate oak hornbeam woodland includes both the rare birch hazel variant and the ash maple variant, developed over Chalky Boulder Clay and glacial gravels. The wood also includes wet ash maple and Lowland pedunculate oak woodland types. The canopy is varied, some areas being dominated by almost pure hornbeam Carpinus betulus and others by pedunculate oak Quercus robur as standard trees and high forest, with varying proportions of ash Fraxinus excelsior, aspen Populus tremula, birch Betula spp. and goat willow Salix caprea. hazel Corylus avellana and field maple Acer campestre are abundant, often as overgrown coppice. There is also a small area of planted conifers within the wood. There is a gradient of variation in the ground flora reflecting variation in soil texture and base status. Dog's mercury Mercurialis perennis, bramble Rubus sp., bluebell Hyacinthoides non-scripta and bracken Pteridium aquilinum are locally dominant. Both oxlip Primula elatior, a nationally uncommon plant at the western edge of its range and primrose P. vulgaris, together with their hybrids, are locally abundant. Other species of interest include wild daffodil Narcissus pseudonarcissus, herb paris Paris quadrifolia, lady's mantle Alchemilla vestita, green hellebore Helleborus viridis spp. occidentalis and violet helleborine Epipactis purpurata. The woodland also includes a number of rides over both the wet clay and the well drained acidic soils, each with characteristic floras. Trailing tormentil Potentilla anglica, water purslane Lythrum portula, heath wood rush Luzula multiflora, trailing and slender St. John's wort Hypericum humifusum and Hypericum pulchrum are typical of the acid soils and are generally uncommon in the Boulder Clay region. The unimproved acidic and neutral grasslands of the rides provide valuable additional habitat for invertebrates.

Species mentioned

Insects to look out for

These moths, butterflies and beetles are known to feed on plants recorded at this site, and carry a notable UK conservation status — but a host-plant being present doesn't mean the insect has actually been recorded here. Treat this as "worth watching for," not a confirmed sighting.

Host-plant data: Cook et al. (2025), Traits data for the butterflies and macro-moths of Great Britain and Ireland, 2024, UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology / Butterfly Conservation; and Padovani et al. (2020), Database of Insects and their Food Plants (DBIF), UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (both Open Government Licence). Contains data supplied by UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology.

Plant communities