bbc.co.uk navigation

European oak woodland in autumn

Oak wood

Oak woods are dominated by both sessile and pedunculate oak trees. Birch, holly, rowan and hazel are among the other trees commonly found in this woodland habitat. Wildflowers such as bluebells and wood anemones carpet the woodland in spring, before the tree canopy shuts out the light. These woods provide a rich habitat for invertebrates, birds and mammals, along with an amazing array of fungi, mosses and lichens. Oak woodland was the top vegetation in many areas of Britain before their mass clearance by man. Those that are left were managed until around a hundred years ago.

Watch video clips from past programmes (7 clips)

In order to see this content you need to have an up-to-date version of Flash installed and Javascript turned on.

View all 7 video clips

About Oak wood

Ancient woodland is a term used in the United Kingdom to refer specifically to woodland that has existed continuously since 1600 or before in England and Wales (or 1750 in Scotland). Before those dates, planting of new woodland was uncommon, so a wood present in 1600 was likely to have developed naturally. The analogous American term is "old growth forest".

For many species of animal and plant, ancient woodland sites provide the sole habitat, and for many others, conditions on these sites are much more suitable than those on other sites. Ancient woodland in the UK, like rainforest in the tropics, is home to rare and threatened species, more than any other UK habitat. For these reasons ancient woodland is often described as an irreplaceable resource, or 'critical natural capital'.

Ancient woodland is formally defined on maps by Natural England and equivalent bodies. Many ancient woodlands have legal protection of various types, but it is not automatically the case that any ancient woodland is protected.

Read more at Wikipedia

This entry is from Wikipedia, the user-contributed encyclopedia. If you find the content in the 'About' section factually incorrect, defamatory or highly offensive you can edit this article at Wikipedia. For more information on our use of Wikipedia please read our FAQ.

Habitats

Other Terrestrial habitats

Video collections

Take a trip through the natural world with our themed collections of video clips from the natural history archive.

  • Wild autumn Wild autumn

    Autumn - a time of great change, of breathtaking migrations, of high drama.

Elsewhere on the BBC

BBC © 2013 The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Read more.

This page is best viewed in an up-to-date web browser with style sheets (CSS) enabled. While you will be able to view the content of this page in your current browser, you will not be able to get the full visual experience. Please consider upgrading your browser software or enabling style sheets (CSS) if you are able to do so.