Synonymy

Damp oakwood association Moss et al. 1910 p.p.; Quercetum roburis Tansley 1911 p.p.; Quercetum arenosum roburis et sessiliflorae Tansley 1911 p.p.; Quercetum sessiliflorae Moss 1911, 1913, p.p.; Quercus robur-Carpinuswoodland Salisbury 1916p.p.; Quercus sessiliflorae-Carpinus woodland Salisbury 1918a p.p.; Quercetum roboris Tansley 1939 p.p.; Quercetum petraeae sessiliflorae Tansley 1939 p.p.; Ash-maplehazel woods Rackham 1980 p.p.; Hornbeamwoods Rackham 1980 p.p.; Limewoods Rackham 1980 p.p.; Oakwoods Rackham 1980 p.p.; Birchwoods Rackham 1980 p.p.; Chestnut-woods Rackham 1980 p.p.; Hazel-ash woodland Peterken 1981 p.p.; Ash-lime woodland Peterken 1981 p.p.; Oak-lime woodland Peterken 1981 p.p.; Birch-oak woodland Peterken 1981 p.p.; Hornbeam woodland Peterken 1981 p.p.; Woodland plot types 9, 17, 19, 20 & 24 Bunce 1982; Lonicero-Quercetum (Birse & Robertson 1976) Birse 1984 p.p.; Querco-Betuletum Klötzli 1970 p.p.; Blechno-Quercetum fraxinetosum Klötzli 1970 p.p.

Constant species

Quercus robur, Lonicerapericlymenum, Pteridium aquilinum, Rubus fruticosus agg.

Physiognomy

The Quercus robur-Pteridium aquilinum-Rubus fruticosus woodland, like its counterpart on more base-rich soils, the Fraxinus-Acer-Mercurialis woodland, is a variable community in which floristic differences related to climate and soil are overlain by treatment-derived variation in the canopy and underwood. Here, though, the resultant combinations of these patterns are not so numerous or complex and the overall definition of the community is a little more straightforward.

Essentially, these are oakwoods, though in a narrower sense in which that term was applied in early British studies (e.g. Moss et al. 1910, Tansley 1911, 1939). Oak is the most characteristic tree here and, though its cover has been very widely modified by treatment, it remains far and away the commonest tree throughout and is the only woody constant. Quite often, it is very abundant, dominating in semi-natural high-forest canopies and, where the community has been worked as coppice (a frequent, though now largely discontinued, practice), it is invariably the standard. It can also sometimes be found as a component of the underwood itself and the community includes, too, oak plantations whose general floristic character clearly places them here.

Of the two species of oak, Quercus robur is very much the commoner throughout, being especially characteristic of this kind of woodland over most of the lowland south-eastern part of the range of the community. Towards the west and north, it is partly replaced by Q. petraea and a perplexing range of hybrids between the two, which add to the already considerable amount of variation within each species (Jones 1959,1968,Cousens 1965, Wigston 1974).