Rook Clift is a biological Site of Special Scientific Interest east of

South Harting South Harting is a village within Harting civil parish in the Chichester district of West Sussex, England.OS Explorer map 120: Chichester, South Harting and Selsey Scale: 1:25 000. Publisher:Ordnance Survey – Southampton B2 edition. Publishing D ...

West Sussex West Sussex is a county in South East England on the English Channel coast. The ceremonial county comprises the shire districts of Adur, Arun, Chichester, Horsham, and Mid Sussex, and the boroughs of Crawley and Worthing. Covering an a ...

. It is also a

Special Area of Conservation A Special Area of Conservation (SAC) is defined in the European Union's Habitats Directive (92/43/EEC), also known as the ''Directive on the Conservation of Natural Habitats and of Wild Fauna and Flora''. They are to protect the 220 habitats and a ...

. A stream rises in this steep sided valley, which has semi-natural ancient woodland on its slopes. The canopy is dominated by a nationally scarce tree,

large leaved lime ''Tilia platyphyllos'', the large-leaved lime or large-leaved linden, is a species of flowering plant in the family Malvaceae (Tiliaceae). It is a deciduous tree, native to much of Europe, including locally in southwestern Great Britain, growing ...

, with other trees including

beech Beech (''Fagus'') is a genus of deciduous trees in the family Fagaceae, native to temperate Europe, Asia, and North America. Recent classifications recognize 10 to 13 species in two distinct subgenera, ''Engleriana'' and ''Fagus''. The ''Engl ...

and

ash Ash or ashes are the solid remnants of fires. Specifically, ''ash'' refers to all non-aqueous, non- gaseous residues that remain after something burns. In analytical chemistry, to analyse the mineral and metal content of chemical samples, ash ...

. The rich mollusc fauna includes ''

Helicodonta obvoluta ''Helicodonta obvoluta'' is a species of air-breathing land snail, a terrestrial pulmonate gastropod mollusk in the family Helicodontidae.MolluscaBase eds. (2021). MolluscaBase. Helicodonta obvoluta (O. F. Müller, 1774). Accessed through: W ...

'', which is a

Red Data Book The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species, also known as the IUCN Red List or Red Data Book, founded in 1964, is the world's most comprehensive inventory of the global conservation status of biolog ...

species.

References

{{SSSIs West Sussex Sites of Special Scientific Interest in West Sussex Special Areas of Conservation in England Forests and woodlands of West Sussex