Westfield Wood
Encyclopedia
Westfield Wood is a woodland reserve located immediately south of Chatham in Kent
Kent
Kent is a county in southeast England, and is one of the home counties. It borders East Sussex, Surrey and Greater London and has a defined boundary with Essex in the middle of the Thames Estuary. The ceremonial county boundaries of Kent include the shire county of Kent and the unitary borough of...

, 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 is an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty
Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty
An Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty is an area of countryside considered to have significant landscape value in England, Wales or Northern Ireland, that has been specially designated by the Countryside Agency on behalf of the United Kingdom government; the Countryside Council for Wales on...

 and 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...

.

Description

This five-and-a-half hectare site is part of an internationally important yew
Taxus baccata
Taxus baccata is a conifer native to western, central and southern Europe, northwest Africa, northern Iran and southwest Asia. It is the tree originally known as yew, though with other related trees becoming known, it may be now known as the English yew, or European yew.-Description:It is a small-...

 woodland complex. The steep chalky slopes of the central part of the wood are occupied by a dense stand of yew overtopped in places by mature ash and 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:...

, with some field maple, wild cherry and oak
Oak
An oak is a tree or shrub in the genus Quercus , of which about 600 species exist. "Oak" may also appear in the names of species in related genera, notably Lithocarpus...

. Some of the beech trees are fine specimens whilst others have died and provide important dead wood habitat for many insects and fungi.

A large section in the centre of the reserve was flattened by the October 1987 storm. This area has been left untouched and is monitored to record natural regeneration after this natural disturbance event.

On deeper soils in the northern part and in more level areas, 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...

 and ash coppice occurs. Here oak is more abundant, and crab apple
Malus
Malus , the apples, are a genus of about 30–35 species of small deciduous trees or shrubs in the family Rosaceae. Other studies go as far as 55 species including the domesticated Orchard Apple, or Table apple as it was formerly called...

 can be found. Diligent search may yield butcher's-broom and green hellebore
Hellebore
Commonly known as hellebores, members of the genus Helleborus comprise approximately 20 species of herbaceous perennial flowering plants in the family Ranunculaceae, within which it gave its name to the tribe of Helleboreae...

, whilst at the southern end, is stinking hellebore
Helleborus foetidus
Helleborus foetidus, known variously as stinking hellebore , dungwort, and bear's foot, is a member of the buttercup family Ranunculaceae, native of the mountainous regions of Central and Southern Europe, Greece and Asia Minor...

. There is also a fine colony of stinking iris, its orange seeds persisting through the winter.

Down the western edge, a good mixture of shrubs includes burnet rose, guelder-rose, spindle
European spindle
Euonymus europaeus, known as spindle, and also as European spindle and common spindle, is a deciduous shrub or small tree in the family Celastraceae. Other names include Fusoria, Fusanum, Ananbeam, Shemshad Rasmi .-Description:...

, wayfaring-tree and wild privet. The more common orchids of chalk scrub and woodland are present, mainly in one or two small clearings and at the field margins, but all are scarce. Many common woodland bird species are present including green and great spotted woodpecker
Great Spotted Woodpecker
The Great Spotted Woodpecker , Dendrocopos major, is a bird species of the woodpecker family . It is distributed throughout Europe and northern Asia, and usually resident year-round except in the colder parts of its range...

, and goldcrest
Goldcrest
The Goldcrest, Regulus regulus, is a very small passerine bird in the kinglet family. Its colourful golden crest feathers gives rise to its English and scientific names, and possibly to it being called the "king of the birds" in European folklore. Several subspecies are recognised across the very...

. During October and November flocks of thrushes
Thrush (bird)
The thrushes, family Turdidae, are a group of passerine birds that occur worldwide.-Characteristics:Thrushes are plump, soft-plumaged, small to medium-sized birds, inhabiting wooded areas, and often feed on the ground or eat small fruit. The smallest thrush may be the Forest Rock-thrush, at and...

can be seen feeding on the crop of yew berries.
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