Bricket Wood Common is a 70 hectare open space and biological
Site of Special Scientific Interest in
Bricket Wood
Bricket Wood is a village in the county of Hertfordshire, England, south of St Albans and north-northeast of Watford.
History
The area of Bricket Wood was mostly occupied by farmers until Bricket Wood railway station was built in 1861. In 18 ...
in
Hertfordshire.
It is managed by
St Albans City and District Council
ST, St, or St. may refer to:
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together with the Countryside Management Service and Bricket Wood Joint Management Committee.
The common is a remnant of a lowland heath, with much it on the heavy soils of
boulder clay
Boulder clay is an unsorted agglomeration of clastic sediment that is unstratified and structureless and contains gravel of various sizes, shapes, and compositions distributed at random in a fine-grained matrix. The fine-grained matrix consists o ...
with poor drainage and wet habitats. There are also areas of ancient woodland and dry heath. The woodland canopy is mainly oak and silver birch with a
shrub layer
Stratification in the field of ecology refers to the vertical layering of a habitat; the arrangement of vegetation in layers. It classifies the layers (sing. ''stratum'', pl. ''strata'') of vegetation largely according to the different heights to w ...
of hornbeam and hazel. Lowland heath flora include sphagnum in the wetter areas and there are several small ponds. In drier heath areas there are heather,
purple moor-grass
''Molinia caerulea'', known by the common name purple moor-grass, is a species of grass that is native to Europe, west Asia, and north Africa. It grows in locations from the lowlands up to in the Alps. Like most grasses, it grows best in acid so ...
and
heath milkwort Heath milkwort is a common name for several plants and may refer to the following species:
*'' Comesperma ericinum'', from Australia
*'' Polygala serpyllifolia'', from Europe
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