Barnsley Warren is a 61.3 hectare

Hectare

The hectare is a metric unit of area defined as 10,000 square metres , and primarily used in the measurement of land. In 1795, when the metric system was introduced, the are was defined as being 100 square metres and the hectare was thus 100 ares or 1/100 km2...

 biological Site of Special Scientific Interest in Gloucestershire

Gloucestershire

Gloucestershire is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn, and the entire Forest of Dean....

, notified in 1954. The site is also a Nature Conservation Review site. It lies in a steep-sided valley, east of the A429, northeast of Cirencester

Cirencester

Cirencester is a market town in east Gloucestershire, England, 93 miles west northwest of London. Cirencester lies on the River Churn, a tributary of the River Thames, and is the largest town in the Cotswold District. It is the home of the Royal Agricultural College, the oldest agricultural...

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Following the introduction of the Countryside and Rights of Way Act, the whole of the site was designated "access land" and is therefore open to public access.

The Gloucestershire Pasqueflower Reserve

Within the boundary of the Warren, at is the Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust

Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust

The Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust is the Gloucestershire local partner in a conservation network of 47 Wildlife Trusts. The Wildlife Trusts are local charities with the specific aim of protecting the United Kingdom's natural heritage...

's Gloucestershire Pasqueflower Reserve. Pasqueflower

Pulsatilla vulgaris

Pulsatilla vulgaris belongs to the buttercup family , native to western, central and southern Europe....

 (Pulsatilla vulgaris) is found in larger quantities here than anywhere else in the Cotswolds, which are at the western limit of this species' European range.

Other notable plants

Other notable plants found at the site include Man Orchid

Man orchid

Orchis anthropophora, the Man Orchid , is a European species of orchid whose flowers resemble a human figure. The head is formed by the petals and sepals, and the suspended torso and limbs by the lobes of the labellum...

 (Aceras anthropophorum), Musk Orchid

Musk Orchid

The musk orchid is a commonly occurring species of European orchid.-Status in Britain:Musk orchids have a localised distribution in Britain. Sites where it is found include Ham Hill in Wiltshire....

 (Herminimum monorchis), Slender Bedstraw Galium pumilum, Chalk Milkwort (Polgala calcarea), Round-headed Rampion Phyteuma tenerum and Bastard-toadflax Thesium humifusum.

Plant communities

The plant community in which the Pasqueflower grows is CG5

British NVC community CG5

NVC community CG5 is one of the calcicolous grassland communities in the British National Vegetation Classification system. It is one of four communities of rank, tussocky grassland associated with low levels of grazing, within the lowland calcicolous grassland group.It is a comparatively widely...

 (Bromus erectus - Brachypodium pinnatum grassland) in the British National Vegetation Classification

British National Vegetation Classification

The British National Vegetation Classification or NVC is a system of classifying natural habitat types in Great Britain according to the vegetation they contain....

Source

• English Nature citation sheet for the site (accessed 21 April 2007)

External links

• English Nature website (SSSI information)
• Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust website