Local Wildlife Site

Wildlife

Some of the many fine, mature tree specimens include horse-chestnut, hybrid black poplar, Turkey oak, London plane and common lime. Ash is the chief native tree. On the southeastern edge of the park, at the end of Eastern Road, is a small area of mature hawthorn scrub managed as a nature area. These tall hawthorns form a sort of woodland canopy with blackthorn and elder as a scrubby understorey. The ground flora consists of common nettle, bramble, cleavers and a little stinking iris, which here is probably a garden escape. This area supports a surprisingly large community of butterflies, including meadow brown, speckled wood and small tortoiseshell. Many of the birds familiar in parks and gardens frequent this area.To the south, towards Adelaide Avenue, is an area of semi-improved neutral grassland. Here the strict grassland management regime adopted over other parts of the park has been relaxed. The result is a meadow with a surprisingly high range of grasses. No less than 12 species have been catalogued, including creeping bent, false oat-grass, cock's-foot, red fescue, meadow barley and small cat's-tail. The meadow does not, however, have a correspondingly high diversity of wildflowers.

Facilities

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