Frog Wood Bog is a Site of Special Scientific Interest

Site of Special Scientific Interest

A Site of Special Scientific Interest is a conservation designation denoting a protected area in the United Kingdom. SSSIs are the basic building block of site-based nature conservation legislation and most other legal nature/geological conservation designations in Great Britain are based upon...

 in the Teesdale

Teesdale (district)

Teesdale was, from 1974 to 2009, a local government district in County Durham, England. Its council was based in Barnard Castle and it was named after the valley of the River Tees....

 district of County Durham

County Durham

County Durham is a ceremonial county and unitary district in north east England. The county town is Durham. The largest settlement in the ceremonial county is the town of Darlington...

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

. It lies alongside Bedburn Beck, approximately 3.5 km west of the village of Bedburn

Bedburn

Bedburn is a village in County Durham, in England. It is situated near Hamsterley and Hamsterley Forest, and the River Wear.-External links:...

.

The site mainly consists of mire

Bog

A bog, quagmire or mire is a wetland that accumulates acidic peat, a deposit of dead plant material—often mosses or, in Arctic climates, lichens....

 vegetation, of two distinct varieties, one characterised by an abundance of bog mosses, Sphagnum spp

Sphagnum

Sphagnum is a genus of between 151 and 350 species of mosses commonly called peat moss, due to its prevalence in peat bogs and mires. A distinction is made between sphagnum moss, the live moss growing on top of a peat bog on one hand, and sphagnum peat moss or sphagnum peat on the other, the...

, the other dominated by soft rush, Juncus effusus, and hare's-tail cottongrass, Eriophorum vaginatum

Eriophorum vaginatum

Eriophorum vaginatum L. is a species of perennial herbaceous plants in the family Cyperaceae, native to bogs and other acidic wetlands throughout the Holarctic Kingdom. It is a 30-60 cm high tussock-forming plant with erect solitary spikelets.-External links:* in Flora of North America*...

. There are also areas of grassland and a secondary woodland of downy birch, Betula pubescens, with a groundcover of rush, bog mosses and purple moor-grass, Molinia caerulea. The importance of the site is the mire vegetation, which, of this type, is scarce in County Durham.