W13 - Taxus Baccata Woodland

Summary

Synonymy

Yew-woods Tansley & Rankin 1911, Watt 1926, Tansley 1939, Ratcliffe 1977.

Constant species

Taxus baccata.

Rare species

Buxus sempervirens.

Physiognomy

Only rarely can such species-poor vegetation as mature Taxus baccata woodland present such a memorable spectacle. Taxus is the only constant woody species here, indeed the only constant, being an uncompromising dominant in a canopy that is rarely higher than 10 m but typically closed and very dense. Beyond the outer margins of stands, which can be wind-pruned and surrounded by a fringe of shrubs and clitnbers of the neighbouring scrub, Taxus reigns supreme in sometimes quite extensive stretches of striking floristic poverty and uniformity. In such a scene, the different character of the individual trees is very impressive, with pioneers of venerable appearance, richly branched from the ground and often with their trunks fused into weird shapes, and, between them, younger trees, less branched but frequently grown up lop-sided in the shade of the earlier invaders (Watt 1926, Williamson 1978).

No other tree is more than occasional throughout the community, though Sorbus aria is a very characteristic associate and, in one sub-community, it becomes a little more frequent, its crowns characteristically taller than the Taxus canopy and, with their dusty white foliage, forming a sharp contrast to the sea of dark green around. Quite commonly, it carries Viscum album. Emergent Fraxinus excelsior can also sometimes be seen and, rarely, there can be widely-scattered Fagus sylvatica, Acer pseudoplatanus or Quercus robur.

The picture beneath the Taxus is characteristically gloomy and bare. In the first place, there is no true understorey here. Associated shrubs are rare, except around the margins of stands and in gaps, and usually there is nothing more than a few sparse and spindly specimens of Sambucus nigra and a very occasional drawn-up Ilex aquifolium or Crataegus monogyna. Although seedlings of Taxus appear in large numbers in most years, they disappear by autumn and saplings occur only rarely. Where the canopy is a little thinner there may be some young Fraxinus or A. pseudoplatanus. In a few stands, Buxus sempervirens is a distinctive associate, and it can grow up as a very local canopy dominant.