Slitt Woods is a
Site of Special Scientific Interest in the
Wear Valley district of
County Durham, England. It occupies the valley of Middlehope Burn, a tributary of the
River Wear, which it joins at
Westgate Westgate or West Gate may refer to:
Companies
* Westgate Resorts, a real estate company and timeshare company
* Westgate Department Stores, the department store division of Anglia Regional Co-operative Society in the United Kingdom
Events
* Westg ...
, just south of the site.
The site has a variety of habitats, including woodland,
calcareous
Calcareous () is an adjective meaning "mostly or partly composed of calcium carbonate", in other words, containing lime or being chalky. The term is used in a wide variety of scientific disciplines.
In zoology
''Calcareous'' is used as an a ...
grassland,
fen, and revegetated mine workings.
The woodland is characterised by ash, ''
Fraxinus excelsior
''Fraxinus excelsior'', known as the ash, or European ash or common ash to distinguish it from other types of ash, is a flowering plant species in the olive family Oleaceae. It is native throughout mainland Europe east to the Caucasus and Albo ...
'', and wych elm, ''
Ulmus glabra'', over an understorey of hazel, ''
Corylus avellana''. The ground cover includes great bell-flower, ''
Campanula latifolia'', globeflower, ''
Trollius europaeus'', wood cranesbill, ''
Geranium sylvaticum'', and marsh hawk's-beard, ''
Crepis paludosa
''Crepis paludosa'', the marsh hawk's-beard, is a European species of flowering plant in the tribe Cichorieae of the family Asteraceae. It is widespread across much of Europe with isolated populations in Iceland, the Ural Mountains, and the Cauca ...
''.
The site takes in the disused workings of two former
lead
Lead is a chemical element with the Symbol (chemistry), symbol Pb (from the Latin ) and atomic number 82. It is a heavy metals, heavy metal that is density, denser than most common materials. Lead is Mohs scale of mineral hardness#Intermediate ...
mines, Slitt Mine and Middlehope Mine. The waste from these mines supports open grassland within which the
metallophyte spring sandwort, ''Minuartia verna'', has established itself.
References
Sites of Special Scientific Interest in County Durham
Forests and woodlands of County Durham
Stanhope, County Durham
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