Flora of Ashdown Forest - Botanical Society of the British Isles

fences or topography. It may dominate the woodland floor vegetation in the older woodlands, and the isolated clumpin Broadstone Warren is presumably a recent colonist.Very locally frequent in the Weald, especially in rocky woodlands and on acidic soils, but surely not on heaths assuggested by Hall (1980), It is commonest in northern and western Britain and grows at high altitude in the Scottishmountains, usually on ungrazed ledges but also sometimes on open, grazed hillsides where the patches increasevegetatively but rarely flower. It is widespread in southern, central and western Europe occurring mainly in themountains in the eastern part of its range, and occurs in Asia Minor.197Luzula campestris. Field wood-rush, EasterMgrass, Good Friday grass.Common on the Forest (Hall 1980).Widespread in virtually every square on the Forest. It forms patches in short,unimproved, neutral and acidic grassland, on verges, playing fields, golf course fairways,and especially in lawns. The patches slowly increase in size and eventually the centresmay die leaving a ring. It flowers from March onwards, hence the name EasterMgrass,and often occurs with Carex caryophyllea, but is very difficult to find by midsummer asthe leaves die down until the autumn. It is very tolerant of mowing and grazing and isoften frequent in mossy, heavily rabbit-grazed areas.Common and widespread in Sussex and Britain. Widespread in Eurasia, and in themountains of tropical Africa.Luzula multiflara sensu lata. Many-flowered woodMrush.In Britain L. multitlora s.l. is usually considered to consist of L. multitlora and L. congesta. L. congesta is an octoploidwhich is often treated as an infraspecific taxon of L. multiflora in Britain but it appears to have been misunderstooddue to poor characters being given in the floras (Kirschner & Rich 1993). The two species can be separated asfollows:L. multif/ora fEhrh.) Lej. subsp. multiflora: Inflorescences usually pedunculate. Anthers as long as, or up to two timeslonger than the filaments. Seeds oblong-ovoid, 0.9-1.1 (-1.2) mm long, usually 0.8 mm wide.L. congesta (Thuill.) Lej.: Inflorescence congested, some of the clusters may be pedunculate. Anthers as long as thefilaments. Seeds ovoid, 1.2-1.5 mm long, 0.9-1.0 mm wide.All records for the segregates have been determined by TR from seed measurements. Records for the aggregate areeither of vegetative plants or from other recorders.L. multif/ora subsp. multiflora is much rarer on the Forest and tends to occur on bare mineral soils in the open asaround Gills Lap. It is widespread in Europe, and is itself a complex species in Europe represented by a range ofmorphologically and/or karyologically distinct populations at various ploidy levels. A hexaploid cytotype (subsp.mu/tit/ora) occurs in continental Europe and Britain in a range of habitats from the lowlands to the mountains, mostlyin meadows and mesophilous woodlands. In geographically or ecologically marginal regions, diploid and tetraploidpopulations can be found, and a new tetraploid has recently been found in Ireland (Kirschner & Rich 1993, 1996).L. congesta is common on rides, in wet heaths and bogs, open woodland, and damp grassland on AshdownForest, and seems to be the common widespread plant of most of Sussex. It is an endemic of western Europe. Itoften occurs on peaty organic soils.L. mu/tit/ora s.l. is common in the Weald in damp acidic habitats and is widespread in Britain.Luzula mu/t1'f/ora 5.1.L. mu/tit/ora subsp. multif/oraMany-flowered wood-rushL. congestaClustered wood-rush.3 -++--'L~_--'-+-4 5