Local Wildlife Site

Wildlife

Barnet Gate Wood, at the northern end of the farm, is a small ancient wood. The canopy is composed of oak and hornbeam, with an understorey dominated by rhododendron, with areas of hazel coppice and a few wild service-trees. Wood anemone and bluebell occur in the ground flora. The Countryside Park contains a number of small woods, all of them secondary. Nevertheless, Target Wood has an excellent structure, with coppiced hazel in a shrub layer which also includes crab apple and field maple, while Nut Wood has a surprisingly good ground flora, including soft shield-fern, yellow archangel, wood speedwell and bluebell, species usually associated with ancient woods. Most of the farm and much of the Countryside Park is grassland, including some fine examples of unimproved London clay grassland, with an excellent diversity of wild flowers, including cowslip, pepper saxifrage, devil's-bit scabious, sneezewort, pignut, burnet saxifrage, betony, square-stalked St John's-wort, greater bird's-foot-trefoil and zigzag clover. Other fields are less diverse, but are surrounded by an excellent network of hedges with a good diversity of trees and shrubs. Greater burnet-saxifrage, which is very rare in London, grows in some of the hedge bottoms. Wetlands include Leg of Mutton Pond in the Countryside Park and an excellent wet ditch on the farm. The pond contains white water-lily and blue water-speedwell, and supports amphibians, which attract grass snakes, and a good diversity of invertebrates. The ditch supports a diverse flora including common marsh-bedstraw and narrow-fruited watercress.

Facilities

The London LOOP and the Dollis Valley Greenwalk pass through the site.