Introduction
Monks Wood is the largest wood in Cambridgeshire. It is an ancient woodland that has had woodland cover for over 2000 years and has a written history dating back 900 years. It became a National Nature Reserve in 1953 and around the same time became a government ecological research centre that ran from 1961 to 2009.
With a team of government scientists next door, this site is one of the most researched NNRs in the country and has a very impressive species list.
The woodland, which has developed on heavy clay soils, consists of oak, ash and field maple trees and has a rich shrub understorey of hazel, blackthorn, dogwood and sallow.
The ground flora includes many species typical of ancient woodland including bluebell, wood anemone, and yellow archangel.
Two large fields, wide flower rich rides and ponds all add variety to this woodland site and are home to a large diversity of plants and insects.
Habitats
Woodland
The woodland is dominated by ash, along with oak, field maple and downy birch and is typical of woodlands established on heavy clay soils. Pendunculate oak trees are often the largest trees, and wild service tree is frequently found within the wood. In wetter areas aspen stands can be found and in other areas elm can dominate.
The shrub layer is varied with hazel, dogwood, blackthorn, sallow, spindle spurge laurel and wayfaring tree.
Grassland
Two fields of flower rich grassland are present within the woodland and hold species such as ragged robin, devil’s-bit scabious and three species of orchid including two marsh orchids along with adder’s-tongue.
The wide woodland rides also provide good habitats for wildlife. These have a similar flora with fleabane and devils bit scabious flowering late in the year.
The woodland rides and glades offer sheltered, warm flower rich areas that provide the ideal conditions for the many butterflies and other insects that can be seen in this woodland.
Key species
Woodland plants
Typical ancient woodland plants grow in profusion in the spring, with great display of bluebells, wood anemones, primroses, bugle and violets.
Amongst the 435 species of flowering plants and ferns that have been recorded on this site are a number of local and national rarities. These include greater butterfly orchid, violet helleborine, crested cow-wheat, small teasel, spurge laurel and water purslane.
Wild service tree, also known as chequers, is found frequently in the wood and is one of the many ancient woodland indicator plants.
Woodland plants overlap in the rides and edges of the meadows with grassland plants such as knapweed, fleabane and devil’s-bit scabious
Creeping pigtail moss
110 species of bryophyte (mosses and liverworts) have been recorded. Many of the rare species grow on the bark of ash which is now being severely impacted by ash dieback.
The creeping pigtail moss is a scarce bark-dwelling moss that creeps along decaying trunks. Monks Wood and the surrounding ancient woodlands serve as strongholds for this nationally scarce species,
Fungi
As would be expected in such an old woodland, the fungi list is very impressive with 609 species having been recorded including a webcap species that was new to science.
Other species of note include magpie inkcap, snakeskin gisette and livid pinkgill.
Marsh tit
The site has a typical lowland woodland bird population with woodpeckers, woodcock and marsh tit. Nightingale used to breed.
Monks Wood is historically famous for long-term population studies of the declining marsh tit; the records show they are vastly more frequent here than elsewhere in the region.
Black hairstreak
The first British record of the rare black hairstreak was made in Monks Wood in 1828, and this butterfly can still be found here today.
This is a great site for butterflies, and others of note include the silver-washed fritillary, brimstone, brown argus, green hairstreak, purple hairstreak, marbled white and grizzled skipper.
Beetles
The reserve is one of the richest sites in the country for its beetles, with over 1000 species, especially ones associated with deadwood like longhorn beetles and the lesser stag beetle. Predatory beetles and those associated with fungi are also well represented.
Dragonflies
The wood is excellent for specialized woodland and pond edge dragonflies, including the southern hawker, broad bodied chaser and ruddy darter.
Further info
Natural England’s Cambridgeshire NNRs:
Blog post:
You must be logged in to post a comment.