Flora of Ashdown Forest - Botanical Society of the British Isles

214Aira praecox. Early hair-grass.Frequent on the Forest (Hall 1980).Locally scattered on rides in barer, sandy soils. It is a winter annual of short, openvegetation on generally acidic soils.Locally frequent in Sussex on sandy heaths and banks. Decreasing in England (Rich &3 Woodruff 1996). Widespread in Britain and mainly western (possibly endemic?) in Europe.4 5Anthoxanthum odoratum. Sweet vernal grass.Widespread in acidic grassland and rides around the Forest.Recorded in 90% of the tetrads in Sussex (Hall 1980), Common in Britain, Europe andtemperate Asia.Phalaris arundinacea. Reed canary-grass.Tetrad 43H (Hall 1980).We only have lour native squares; along the Medway at Forest Row (43.34 and 44.34), 1994, TR; near Pooh SticksBridge (47.33), 1988, PW; and in the lake at Pipping lord Park (44.30), 1995, PH and Kent Field Club. All other plantsintroduced to ponds etc. around the Forest are the garden form with variegated leaves, var. picta.Widespread in Sussex especially on the larger river banks and in marshes. Widespread in lowland Britain.Widespread in Europe except the extreme south, temperate Asia, South Africa and North America.P. arundinacea var. arundinacea var. picta3 -++---'~--'-+- 3-+4--.~---~-4 5 4 5[Phalaris canariensis. Canarywgrass.Tetrad 53A (Hall 1980), probably in Crowborough outside our area.]Agrostis capillaris. Common bent.Common on the Forest (Hall 1980).Common in grassland and on rides. This was probably one of the commonest grasseson the Forest when it was grazed, and it still dominates areas of acidic grassland and theless improved pastures.Very common in Sussex and either increasing or more widely recorded in England (Rich& Woodruff 1996). Widespread in Britain and Europe.