Flora of Ashdown Forest - Botanical Society of the British Isles

126RHAMNACEAEFrangula alnus (Rhamnus frangula). Alder buckthorn, Dogwood.Ashdown Forest (Coleman 18361. Common on the Forest (Hall 19801.On open heath and woodland across the Forest, sometimes locally abundant, as for'instance south of Chelwood Gate cricket pitch or around Jumper's Town. It can withstandshade and occurs as scattered plants in closed secondary woodland where it fruits onlysparsely. The mixture of black and red berries as they ripen is often striking.This species produces a high grade charcoal which is light and flammable, and especiallysuitable for making gunpowder and time fuses. It was planted and coppiced specifically forgunpowder in some places in Britain, and it is still commercially harvested in Europe (Hawkins1994). 'Dogwood' was historically collected from the Forest and taken to 'Dogwood Yard' at'Fairwarp. Bark was stripped from bundles of sticks after soaking in the pond, and then dried before being sent togunpowder factories at Faversham, Maresfield and other places (AFN 30:13-14), The bark is also useful medicinally(Howkins 1994).ILocally common on acidic soils in the Weald, and especially frequent on Ashdown and St Leonard's Forests. Locallyfrequent in England and Wales on acidic soils, but decreasing (Rich & Woodruff 1996). Widespread in middle Europe toSiberia, and in North Africa.LINACEAE*Linum usitatissimum, Flax,Occasional as regularly spaced plants scattered on road verges, and in drains, whence theyarrived off the back of seed lorries. The short, oil-seed plants are also rarely grown for linseedin the Flora area, as for instance near Monkshill Farm (394.339) in 1995, but all the recordsare from roadsides, Numerous seedlings have been noticed germinating in September in road3 -++-~------'-+- gutters, but few survive to flowering.4 5Flax fields often appear blue in the morning and green in the afternoon, which is probablyeither due to flowers tracking the sun, or the petals dropping as the flowers only last a day.Flax was once quite widely grown for linen and linseed oil up to the first world war. Aflax factory was built during World War II at Five Ash Down, and produced webbing, etc.Historically seed was imported from eastern Europe, resulting in the occurrence of some unusual weeds specific to flaxfields which had evolved to resemble flax (e.g. Camelina spp.; Rich 1991). The modern resurgence of growing flax forlinsfjfjrJ sllhsidies has not resulted in the re-appearance of any interesting weeds as the seed is cleansed of impurities.Linum catharticum. Fairy flax.Frequent on the Forest (Hall 19801.Our d'lstribution map shows a pattern strongly related to the richer road verges whichpresumably have a calcareous influence from the road chippings, It also occasionally occurs inopen, damp, base-rich areas in grassland, and may occur on rides.Common on the chalk in Sussex and locally frequent elsewhere (Hall 1980); it iswidespread throughout Britain but decreasing in England probably due to habitat loss (Rich &Woodruff 1996). Widespread in Europe and western Asia.This slender plant behaves as an annual or biennial, the former producing about three4 5times fewer seeds than the latter. Seeds germinate mainly in the spring, and seedlings survivebest in open grassland in microhabitats with some cover provided by perennial plants. It is most frequent on soils abovepH 7, and has not been recorded on soils below pH 5 (Grime et al. 1988).Ridge Warren (412.3081 with Wahlenberg;a, 1987, MM, but now gone as the site has grownRadiola linoides. Allseed, Flax-seed.On Ashdown Forest and elsewhere in abundance (Forster 1816). On Ashdown Forest(Coleman 18361. Ashdown Forest, W. C. Unwin (Arnold 1887). Frequent in BroadstoneWarren, 1948, R. A. Boniface.Despite the apparent abundance on the Forest in former times it was not recorded on the3 Forest for the Sussex Plant Atlas (Hall 1980). We have recorded it in only two sites; Press4 5over; Five Hundred Acre Wood on ride (489.3271, 1994, ER & RN.This calcifuge species is also decreasing in England (Rich & Woodruff 1996). It occurs indamp mud in wheel ruts and woodland rides and varies enormously in abundance from year toyear. It is often associated with Anaga/lis minima but has a wider distribution in Britain which Salisbury (1970) suggests isdue to its three-fold greater potential seed output.