Littleworth Common: The eastern pond

Image: © Nigel Cox Taken: 15 Nov 2008

Littleworth Common is a heathland SSSI, and contains two large adjacent ponds of which this is the eastern of the pair. The common is one of the last recorded locations for the nationally rare starfruit Damasonium alisma. This is an annual plant, germinating on bare mud when pond water levels fall in late spring and summer. It cannot tolerate competition from other plants and has a very low seed output, but it actually thrives in the conditions provided by the trampling and puddling of cattle, and even geese, on the water's edge. This disturbance also stirs up the mud, brings seed to the surface and is an important factor in germination. Thus, one of the major reasons for its decline has been the discontinuance of grazing on heaths, resulting in an increase in the vegetation in and around heathland ponds. This has combined with a general lowering of the water table (through widespread land drainage and groundwater abstraction), to deprive the plant of the deep winter water and subsequent submergence, that it also requires. This information is from the English Nature website describing the SSSI, which also states that only one of the ponds is the location for starfruit, without specifying which, but that they also once supported another nationally rare plant, the small fleabane Pulicaria vulgaris, which has not been seen since 1949. This pond is shown on the Ordnance Survey's map edition of 1876, although the other pond is not. For the other pond please see Image

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