Rowley Lodge Field is a Site of Borough Importance for Nature Conservation, Grade II, in

Arkley Arkley is a village in Greater London, England, within the London Borough of Barnet. It is located north-northwest of Charing Cross. It consists of a long village strung out between Barnet and Stirling Corner, and composed of the ancient ...

in the

London Borough of Barnet The London Borough of Barnet () is a suburban London boroughs, London borough in north London, England. Forming part of Outer London, the borough was formed in 1965 from parts of the ceremonial counties of Middlesex and Hertfordshire. It is the ...

. Rowley Lodge Field is an old hay meadow, with flower rich grassland and scattered

oak An oak is a hardwood tree or shrub in the genus ''Quercus'' of the beech family. They have spirally arranged leaves, often with lobed edges, and a nut called an acorn, borne within a cup. The genus is widely distributed in the Northern Hemisp ...

trees. It has a good diversity of wild flowers, including

great burnet ''Sanguisorba officinalis'', commonly known as great burnet, is a plant in the family Rosaceae, subfamily Rosoideae. It is native throughout the cooler regions of the Northern Hemisphere in Europe, northern Asia, and northern North America. It ...

and pignut, both characteristic of unimproved grassland. Patches of acid grassland are dominated by

red fescue ''Festuca rubra'' is a species of grass known by the common name red fescue, creeping red fescue or the rush-leaf fescue. It is widespread across much of the Northern Hemisphere and can tolerate many habitats and climates. It is best adapted to w ...

, and also contain abundant

sheep's sorrel ''Rumex acetosella'', commonly known as red sorrel, sheep's sorrel, field sorrel and sour weed, is a species of flowering plant in the buckwheat family Polygonaceae. Native to Eurasia including the British Isles, the plant and its subspecies are ...

and

tormentil ''Potentilla'' is a genus containing over 500 species of annual, biennial and perennial herbaceous flowering plants in the rose family, Rosaceae. Potentillas may also be called cinquefoils in English, but they have also been called five finge ...

. Access is by a footpath from Rowley Lane near the junction with Rowley Green Road. A stile on the left then leads to another footpath which goes through Rowley Lodge Field to a small wood and then to Brickfield Lane.

See also

References

Further reading