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Grass Wood is an ancient woodland of in Wharfedale, North Yorkshire, England, that has an exceptional ground flora of woodland wildflowers. The area was notified as a Site of Special Scientific Interest in 1955 for upland broadleaved woodland.〔(Grass Wood SSSI Natural England )〕 The site is also listed in A Nature Conservation Review under the entry for "Conistone Old Pasture and Bastow Wood". The Yorkshire Wildlife Trust completed the purchase of the site in 1983 and manages it as a nature reserve.〔(Grass Wood, Yorkshire Wildlife Trust )〕 The whole of the area of the SSSI is registered common land.〔(Open Access Mapping, Natural England )〕 Two adjacent sites Bastow Wood〔(Bastow Wood SSSI Natural England )〕 and Conistone Old Pasture〔(Conistone Old Pasture SSSI Natural England )〕 are also notified as SSSIs, the former for broadleaved woodland and calcareous grassland, and the latter for calcareous grassland and limestone pavement. Grass Wood is the last surviving native site in Britain for the Lady's Slipper Orchid (''Cypripedium calceolus'').〔(Pardosa lugubris (Walckenaer, 1802) at Grass Wood, North Yorkshire. ) ''Spider Recording Scheme News'' No. 56〕 ==Site description== Grass Wood is on the west and south-facing slopes of a Carboniferous Limestone spur in Upper Wharfedale, to the south of Conistone Moor. Rock outcrops, scree and limestone pavement areas occur throughout the wood, along with two significant scar precipices. The original woodland would have been ash ''Fraxinus excelsior'' dominating over the limestone soils, with Wych elm ''Ulmus glabra'' and oak probably ''Quercus petraea'' and with an understorey of hazel ''Corylus avellana''.〔(Grass Wood SSSI citation Natural England )〕 Felling and replanting has altered the dominant woodland structure, extensively modifying its composition and making it a less natural woodland than the adjacent Bastow Wood. During the 19th century the lower slopes were interplanted with beech ''Fagus sylvatica'' and sycamore ''Acer pseudoplatanus'', and in the 1960s the north-eastern part of the site was replanted with Norway spruce, European larch, Scots pine and beech. A management objective now is to remove areas of non-native tree species and replant with broadleaves from local seed sources. As well as these areas cleared through selective felling, many areas of the woodland have the appearance of an early successional stage of advance natural regeneration through mainly saplings of ash, birch and sycamore, this enclosed within a variable canopy of ash, sycamore, beech, oak, and with some birch. Shrubs and small trees in the understorey include bird cherry ''Prunus padus'', hazel, spindle ''Euonymus europaeus'', buckthorn ''Rhamnus cathartica'', wild privet ''Ligustrum vulgare'', blackthorn ''Prunus spinosa'' and guelder-rose ''Viburnum opulus''. The underlying geology ensures that most of the site is well drained, favouring lime-loving plants – the calcicoles. There are, however, localised areas with poorer drainage and in which some lime-hating plants can be found – the calcifuges - such as bracken ''Pteridium aquilinum'', as well as plants associated with water-logged conditions such as common valerian ''Valeriana officinalis'' and wild angelica ''Angelica sylvestris''. The floristic interest of Grass Wood is described and explained in a book by Sylvia Arnold on the wildflowers of the Yorkshire Dales,〔Wild flowers of the Yorkshire Dales, Sylvia Arnold (1988) ISBN 0-907033-65-2〕 and there is a description of a wildflower walk that points out the location of particular wildflowers as the walk progresses around and through the wood.〔Wildflower walks of the Yorkshire Dales, Southern Region, Amanda and Brin Best (2002) ISBN 0-946184-98-4〕 The woodland is served by one public footpath, and as a registered commons is open access within its boundaries. There is however an extensive network of paths that have arisen through common usage over the years. It is a popular location for dog walkers, which often limits the chance of seeing the local roe deer feeding in the woodland. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Grass Wood, Wharfedale」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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