Flora of Woodpark Forest

As you leave the road from Middleline and enter the quiet tranquillity, you become aware of a huge number of wildflowers, shrubs and trees, that makes up the woodland habitat. This deciduous woodland can be broken up into three layers: firstly canopy, which is formed by the taller trees, the most dominant being the oak which is often accompanied by ash and beech, which was introduced during the eighteenth century.
The smaller trees make up the middle layer and these consist mainly of birch, holly and sycamore. Also into this category would fall hazel and rowan.

It is perhaps in the lower layer, the forest floor, that the great diversity of Irish flora becomes apparent. Due to the open structure of Irish woodland, the floor receives plenty of sunlight, especially during spring, which creates an ideal environment for growth of wildflowers, mosses and grasses.

One of the first wildflowers to appear in the early spring is the lesser Celandine, which, after a long, bleak winter, brings a welcome burst of colour to the wood with its bright yellow flowers and heart-shaped leaves.
These are soon followed by the primroses and common violets which not only further brighten the scene, but also, on a warm spring day, add their delicate sweet scent to the air.
Adding another colour to the spring Woodland habitat are the wood sorrel and wood anenome, both delicate white flowers favouring acid soil and the latter growing in such profusion as to give the impression of a drift of snow covering the forest floor.

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Closer inspection reveals some lesser known, but no less interesting specimens such as ground ivy with its pretty violet flowers creeping all over the woodland floor, the vivid blue of germander speedwell and the delicate white flower of the wild strawberry which, later in the year, will yield its sweet fruit to those patient enough to search the hedgerows at the forests edge.
If you take time to smell the masses of yellow gorse blossom lining the edge of the wood, you will be reminded of the sweet smell of coconuts and the long spikes of creamy, sweet smelling flowers on the stand of cherry laurel trees. Introduced evergreen, naturalised in many woodlands throughout the country, adds a further fragrance.

Attractive pale pink flowers, opening at the same time of year when the cuckoo starts to call, mark out the clumps of cuckoo flowers in the hedgerows and by the stream in late spring. Few sights can be more welcome than a carpet of bluebells covering the forest floor with a sea of light blue flowers and a light, sweet scent.
Growing amongst the bluebells can be found ramsons or wild garlic which, when walked on or crushed in the hand, will give of a powerful smell of garlic.
All parts of this plant are edible, including the attractive clusters of white flowers, so, together with some young nettles, you could be collecting the basis of your next meal.

As spring turns to summer, yet more wild flowers are to be seen in the forest and hedgerows.
The tall, majestic foxglove, with long spikes of tubular pink or purple flowers, grows on the shady banks and at the edge of the wood where the soil is acidic and is the source of the drug digitalis which is used in the treatment of heart conditions.
The sweet scent of the honeysuckle climbing amongst the hedges and in the wood is a welcome part of a walk in Woodpark, especially at dusk when the scent is strongest.
Its compact heads of creamy, trumpet-shaped flowers are often flushed with red or purple and in autumn its clusters of crimson berries stand out among the foliage of the surrounding woods.

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Later in the summer, the frothy heads of creamy white, sweetly scented flowers of meadowsweet can be found in large clumps in the damper places of the wood. In medieval times, meadowsweet was used as a type of air freshener, strewn on the floor of houses.
The flowers were also used to flavour mead and to make herbal teas.

Autumn is a time of harvest in the woods where a plentiful supply of blackberries, sloes and elderberries can be collected for use in jams, jellies and wines.
This is also the time when the leaves turn and the wood becomes a blaze of colour, filled with various shades of red, yellow and bronze.
As winter approaches and the wildflowers come to an end, those who are familiar with the wood can be happy in the knowledge that the next spring cycle will begin again with the appearance of the first flowers in early spring and that the beauty of Woodpark can be enjoyed once more.

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References
'InisCealtra Review - 1996' by Louise Moore.
(See Media page.)