Any natural plant community will follow a succession to a climax under a given set of environmental conditions and Attenborough Nature Reserve is no exception to this rule. The habitats of the reserve range from the recently disturbed ground of the New Workings, with wasteground and gravel excavations, through a series of habitats including the recently flooded pits at the Long Eaton end of the reserve, past restored pasture and scrubland to the largest gravel pits with encroaching marginal vegetation of reeds, Typha and Glyceria. The Beeston end of the reserve has the oldest and most mature gravel pits which surround the Delta area with its willow, sallow, ash and alder trees, some of which have established themselves on the silt layed down from outwash channels from the gravel processing plant. This area however also includes ancient willow holts and stream courses undisturbed by gravel working.
The most interesting groups of plants on the reserve include the following:
- a wide range of aquatic plants which have established themselves in the flooded pits.
- marginal and semi-aquatic plant communities dominated by Phragmites reeds, two species of Typha reedmace, Glyceria and a wide range of Carex sedges.
- an exceptional collection of willows with eight species plus other hybrids.
and
- colonising plants including two species of orchids and a rich selection of ruderals and aliens.
To view a systematic list of the plant species that have been recorded on the reserve since 1966 |
