Entrance to Margaret's Wood Nature Reserve, Whitebrook

Image: © Jaggery Taken: 1 Feb 2015

A nearby Wildlife Trusts information board states that Margaret's Wood is a fine ancient wood. As you walk up the steep steps into the reserve, you pass through a field with bracken and scrub. In early spring, this slope is covered in a wonderful mass of the rare wild daffodil. Later in spring, the wood is carpeted in bluebells and wood anemones, with wood sorrel and lesser celandine adding to the display. Pignut flowers appear in late spring. Its underground tubers are a favourite food of badgers. In summer, look out for shade-loving woodland plants, such as hedge woundwort, which has hairy heart-shaped leaves and whorls of claret-coloured flowers. The woodland is particularly rich in ferns. The common Welsh species such as broad buckler-fern, male fern, polypody and hard fern are joined by two colonies of the very uncommon oak fern. Margaret's Wood is a stunning sight in autumn when trees are changing colour and many species of fungi appear in the leaf litter or on dead wood. Autumn is the best time of year to look for the most obvious sign of the elusive dormouse - chewed hazelnut shells. The main trees in here are mature oak and beech. Also growing here are silver birch, wild cherry and ash. Shrubs include holly, hazel and hawthorn.

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