• DOI:10.2307/2257377
• Corpus ID: 86960860

The Regeneration of Fraxinus Excelsior in Woods with a Field Layer of Mercurialis Perennis

@article{Wardle1959TheRO,
  title={The Regeneration of Fraxinus Excelsior in Woods with a Field Layer of Mercurialis Perennis},
  author={Peter Wardle},
  journal={Journal of Ecology},
  year={1959},
  volume={47},
  pages={483}
}

• P. Wardle
• Published 1 July 1959
• Environmental Science
• Journal of Ecology

Fraxinus excelsior ranges almost throughout lowland Britain, occupying soils with a surface pH greater than about 4'2. In woodland communities it is accompanied by Mercurialis perennis, except on sites which are exposed and dry, and on sites which are subject to periodic waterlogging. In the present paper, attention is focused on the regeneration of Fraxinus in woods where Mercurialis is clearly dominant in the field layer; for here is provided a straightforward example of the relationship between two layers of a deciduous forest community. The detailed field work and experiments were carried out from 1954 to 1956 in two Cambridgeshire woodlands. Madingley Wood is 3 miles (5 km) west of Cambridge on a low hill overlain with a clay till with chalk and flint fragments. Buff Wood lies 16 miles (26 km) west of Cambridge, on the same type of substratum as Madingley Wood, but the drainage is poorer. Other Fraxinus localities in many parts of the British Isles were also visited.