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Fyning Moor
Posted by Graeme Lyons , Sunday, 16 May 2010 19:50
Fyning Moor is not a moor but a really nice example of Alder woodland on a variety of soil types which has a correspondingly diverse flora. Nimbus accompanied me today and after nearly a 50 mile drive right up to the Hampshire border we found the wood without much difficulty and the two main target species before we even got to the wood; Large Bitter-cress and Greater Chickweed, both new species for me. Large Bitter-cress is very easy to tell from Cuckoo-flower, the blue stamens really stand out but the most obvious difference is the bright green foliage. Greater Chickweed is a little harder to tell but you can see the 10 stamens (5 - 8 on Common Chickweed) in the lower photograph. I also found a large crucifer that I could not find in any book but I finally tracked it down in an old photographic ID guide it's a scarce garden escape called Perennial Honesty. Other plants present included wild Wood Forget-me-not, Water Avens and a whole list of ancient woodland indicators. Birds were pretty quiet but we did hear Green Woodpecker and a Grey Wagtail singing by the bridge. Inverts included Green Tortoise Beetle Cassida viridis and possibly the most easy to key out carabid of all, Loricera pilicornis. This species has really long hairs on the antennae but the specimen I saw today had a whitish mould growing all over its face. Found a Green-veined White at rest (centre photo) and despite a stupid Labrador's best attempt to jump on it, I still managed to get the shot. This SSSI is a really nice woodland and not all that hard to get to with foot paths that run through it. Awesome!
The OED shows that the word "moor" originally referred to a wet area and that's still the case in this part of West Sussex. Fyning Moor contains a number of springs and remains very wet through the dryest years.