Woodland Plants in Moray

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Moray is well supplied with woodlands of all kinds - indeed reference was made to some of the trees and other woodland plants by Lachlan Shaw and in the Statistical Accounts.

Woodlands are very important for a number of reasons:

Allium ursinum - Ramsons, Moray.

Ramsons, or Wild Garlic, is an excellent example of a woodland dependent plant. It is scattered throughout many of the less disturbed deciduous lowland woods in the area. It is closely related to the cultivated garlic which we buy, and indeed both smells and tastes very strongly of the herb as well. It is also being cultivated in some places for culinary use. The plant only flourishes in the most shady, damp areas, especially in deciduous woods beneath oak and beech trees.

Woodland Pond in Planted Forest, Moray

Even planted artificial woodlands can, if given time and good intentions, become attractive amenity areas as well as important wildlife habitats. This woodland pond started out life as a gravel quarry, from which material was extracted to make up the woodland service roads for maintenance and harvesting. As the gravel was removed, the hole left behind began to fill with water, and the Forestry Commission who own the woodland decided to leave the area to become a pond in an open space, rather than replanting it. The pond is now home to many dragonflies, frogs, toads, and other freshwater life, and the marsh and wetland around it supports a number of very rare plant species. The area is now carefully and sensitively maintained to ensure the survival of this new biodiversity.

Felled Woodland, Moray

Another woodland where mineral extraction has also taken place.

It is essential to understand that a planted woodland is like any other agricultural crop - it eventually has to be harvested. However, the manner in which this is done can have a remarkable effect on the plants which live in the wood. Unlike most other crops, a woodland takes thirty or more years to reach maturity and harvesting, and during that time goes through a sequence of changes of light and shade, and undergrowth cover. These subtly changing micro-environments favour first one set of plants, then another, but when the trees are removed, many of the plants below them will disappear. If the area is replanted, the sequence may begin again. Some species can withstand this sudden removal of tree cover better than others.

In the previous photograph, the area was both cleared of trees, then a huge hole was dug to extract gravel for a civil engineering project nearby, before the area was landscaped and replanted with trees. When the photograph was taken the area had just been landscaped prior to replanting, and an adjacent area was being clear felled. The clear felling and subsequent mineral extraction disturbed not just the plants but the whole topsoil and subsoil ecosystem as well, and caused such a disturbance to the plant communities that the area now supports a very different set of plants among the new trees. Some of these are very different to those which are there before, and sprang from seed in the imported topsoil.

Ajuga reptans - Bugle, Moray

Often found in clearings in pinewoods, or below less densely planted patches of trees. This species seems well able to withstand felling. Although it often survives in newly ploughed and planted areas among the young trees as well, it flowers best where it has remained undisturbed.

Endymion non-scriptus - Bluebell, Moray

Bluebells are still quite common in many of the woodlands in Moray. They are a species which can survive in some unusual places however, and are also sometimes found growing among bracken and heather on open moorland - perhaps in areas where birchwoods once stood, but have long since died out. The garden varieties, in shades of pink and white, are a foreign import.

Sambucus nigra - Elder, Moray

Originally introduced to the Highlands of Scotland, this tree has now become naturalised over a wide area, particularly along river banks. It has black berries in the autumn, but both flowers and berries have been used for making wine. This is not a tall tree - some would say it is more of a shrub than a tree.

Dryopteris filix-mas - Male Fern, Moray

One of the commonest non flowering plants found in the woodlands. The photograph below shows the much magnified spore bearing sori on the back of the fronds.

Much of upland Moray is now covered by blanket peat bog and rough grassland. This was not always so - three to four hundred years ago there were many more trees, and cattle and goats grazed the grass which flourished beneath them. Something happened to cause a change, probably a combination of factors - a subtle change in the climate, deliberate removal of trees for firewood and charcoal, and impoverishment of the soil through grazing. Whatever the causes, many of these trees are now gone and replaced by heather moorland. The combination of low nutrient level in the soil, with low temperatures and waterlogging, leads to a very slow rate of breakdown of dead plant material. This material accumulates as a layer of peat, supporting few of the former rich variety of woodland plants.

Tree stumps in peat moss, Moray

Frequently, beneath the peat, are found the preserved remains of the trees which formerly grew there. The roots are embedded in the gravel which lies below the peat; the top of the stumps are embedded in the peat layers above. By deep ploughing to drain and break up the peat, it is sometimes possible to plant and establish new trees once more, or just encourage grass to grow in place of the blanket bog vegetation.

Oxalis acetosella - Wood Sorrel, Moray

A small plant with dainty three lobed leaves, a little bit like those of clover. The white flowers appear in late spring. It is not confined to woodlands - it is also something of an alpine, and is found below scrub Juniper trees at about 1500 ft, and among rocks up to nearly 3000 ft above sea level. For example, you will find it growing below juniper trees at the foot of the Lecht road in Moray, one mile north of the ski centre.

Anemone nemorosa - Wood Anemone, Moray

Flowering in very early spring, usually in deciduous woods or on woodland margins, before the leaves appear on the trees. It belongs to the same family as the Buttercup. Like the Wood Sorrel above, it grows at quite high altitude, and can certainly be found in some areas of open moorland in Moray at well above 1000 ft. Does this also indicate the presence of former woodlands at such altitude? And does that mean that the climate was warmer then? The presence of old tree stumps in the peat, even at this altitude, suggests that this may be the case.

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