Local Wildlife Site

Wildlife

The north of the site contains an area of mostly neutral grassland which supports a sizeable population of the nationally scarce corky-fruited water-dropwort, as well as fairy flax, wild onion and rough hawkbit, which are scarce in Greenwich, and numerous commoner wild flowers, including an unusual abundance of common knapweed. Small areas of acid grassland contain sheep's sorrel and common cat's-ear. The grassland supports large populations of grasshoppers and butterflies, including common blue and meadow brown. An area of mixed native woodland was planted over part of this area in 1986, and further tree planting in 2002 threatened to damage the important grassland, but tree planting has now been limited to belts on the edges of the site. The grassland to the south of the A20 is much less diverse, but the Little Quaggy stream flows through it, forming the borough boundary with Bromley. One of the few sections of river with natural banks in Greenwich borough, it supports wetland vegetation including hairy sedge, marsh foxtail, gipsywort, floating sweet-grass and water figwort.

Facilities

Waymarked walking route