Hawkley Warren is a woodland

Woodland

Ecologically, a woodland is a low-density forest forming open habitats with plenty of sunlight and limited shade. Woodlands may support an understory of shrubs and herbaceous plants including grasses. Woodland may form a transition to shrubland under drier conditions or during early stages of...

 on the northeast-facing Wealden Edge, near the village of Hawkley

Hawkley

Hawkley is a village and civil parish in the East Hampshire district of Hampshire, England. It is 3.5 miles north of Petersfield, to the east of the A3 road.The nearest railway station is 2.2 miles southeast of the village at Liss....

, three miles north of Petersfield

Petersfield, Hampshire

Petersfield is a market town and civil parish in the East Hampshire district of Hampshire, England. It is north of Portsmouth, on the A3 road. The town has its own railway station on the Portsmouth Direct Line, the mainline rail link connecting Portsmouth and London. The town is situated on the...

 in Hampshire

Hampshire

Hampshire is a county on the southern coast of England in the United Kingdom. The county town of Hampshire is Winchester, a historic cathedral city that was once the capital of England. Hampshire is notable for housing the original birthplaces of the Royal Navy, British Army, and Royal Air Force...

. The site is situated in a deep chalk

Chalk

Chalk is a soft, white, porous sedimentary rock, a form of limestone composed of the mineral calcite. Calcite is calcium carbonate or CaCO3. It forms under reasonably deep marine conditions from the gradual accumulation of minute calcite plates shed from micro-organisms called coccolithophores....

 combe

Combe

-English place names:* Combe, Berkshire* Combe, Buckfastleigh, Devon* Combe, Yealmpton, Devon* Combe, Herefordshire* Combe, Oxfordshire* Combe, Somerset-Places in England with combe as one word in part of their name:Cumbria* Black CombeDevon...

.

The site is owned by Hampshire County Council

Hampshire County Council

Hampshire County Council is the county council that governs the majority of the county of Hampshire in England. It provides the upper tier of local government, below which are district councils, and town and parish councils...

 and managed as a nature reserve

Nature reserve

A nature reserve is a protected area of importance for wildlife, flora, fauna or features of geological or other special interest, which is reserved and managed for conservation and to provide special opportunities for study or research...

 jointly by the council and Hampshire Wildlife Trust. The woodland glades are kept open by coppicing

Coppicing

Coppicing is a traditional method of woodland management which takes advantage of the fact that many trees make new growth from the stump or roots if cut down. In a coppiced wood, young tree stems are repeatedly cut down to near ground level...

.

Site description

Beech

Beech

Beech is a genus of ten species of deciduous trees in the family Fagaceae, native to temperate Europe, Asia and North America.-Habit:...

 is the dominant tree at this site although on some of the steeper slopes, Yew

Taxus

Taxus is a genus of yews, small coniferous trees or shrubs in the yew family Taxaceae. They are relatively slow-growing and can be very long-lived, and reach heights of 1-40 m, with trunk diameters of up to 4 m...

 dominates; on the deeper soils in the valley bottom the woodland has a more open canopy of Ash

Ash tree

Fraxinus is a genus flowering plants in the olive and lilac family, Oleaceae. It contains 45-65 species of usually medium to large trees, mostly deciduous though a few subtropical species are evergreen. The tree's common English name, ash, goes back to the Old English æsc, while the generic name...

 and Hazel

Hazel

The hazels are a genus of deciduous trees and large shrubs native to the temperate northern hemisphere. The genus is usually placed in the birch family Betulaceae, though some botanists split the hazels into a separate family Corylaceae.They have simple, rounded leaves with double-serrate margins...

.

Botanical interest

The site's primary interest lies in the fact that it is one of three sites in Britain

Great Britain

Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...

 where Red Helleborine

Red Helleborine

Red Helleborine is an orchid found in Europe, north Africa and parts of Asia. Although reasonably common in parts of its range, this helleborine has always been one of the rarest orchids in Britain.-Distribution and habitat:...

 Cephalanthera rubra remains; this orchid grows on a north-west facing slope. The others being Workman's Wood

Workman's Wood, Sheepscombe

Workman's Wood is a wood just to the east of the village of Sheepscombe, in the Cotswolds, Gloucestershire.It is a 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....

 and Windsor Hill SSSI

Windsor Hill SSSI

Windsor Hill is a Site of Special Scientific Interest in Buckinghamshire, England. It lies within the Chilterns Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.The site was notified as an SSSI in 1951...

, a site in the Chilterns in Buckinghamshire

Buckinghamshire

Buckinghamshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan home county in South East England. The county town is Aylesbury, the largest town in the ceremonial county is Milton Keynes and largest town in the non-metropolitan county is High Wycombe....

. The species was first found at Hawkley Warren in 1986 by K. Turner and Ralph Hollins

Ralph Hollins

J. R. W. Hollins is a naturalist from Hampshire, England.Hollins became active in Hampshire Wildlife Trust and Hampshire Ornithological Society during the 1980s, serving on committees of both organisations....

.

Other orchid species found growing under beech at this site include Bird's-nest Orchid

Bird's-nest Orchid

The Bird's-nest Orchid, Neottia nidus-avis, is a non-photosynthetic orchid found in shady woodland on basic soils. It is a myco-heterotroph. It obtains its nutrients from a mycorrhizal fungus that is attached to a photosynthetic host plant...

, Early Purple Orchid

Early Purple Orchid

Orchis mascula, the Early Purple Orchid, is a species of orchid in the genus Orchis.-Etymology:The specific name is derived from the Latin "masculus", meaning "male" or "virile" and it should refer to the robust aspect of this species or to the shape of the tubers, similar to a pair of...

 and Narrow-leaved Helleborine; Spurge-laurel is also found.

Ramsons

Ramsons

Ramsons — also known as buckrams, wild garlic, broad-leaved garlic, wood garlic, bear leek, and bear's garlic — is a wild relative of chives native to Europe and Asia...

 is found in the valley bottom and Herb Paris is also found here.