A woodland in my town (from an Ecological POV)

I took a walk in woodlands (as is per the norm in my life), and walked into an impenetrable sea of green.. known as Holly. The woodland itself at an estimate contains about 60% Holly, 15% Rhododendron, 5% Gorse and 18% tall deciduous trees (Birch/Ash etc).. and about 2% exotic species (Hebe etc)

Interestingly much of Rhododendron has been outcompeted by the Holly.. which is highly unusual, and so now it is beginning to resemble the Holly hills of California (where of course Holly is invasive - think Hollywood). The woods here are starting to look more like the woodlands of NW Iberia, rather than sharing similarities with woodlands in say, the Southeast of England..

Anyway apologies for the poor nature of the photos.. this is my old camera I was using. (I had more photos but the file seems corrupt)

 

Apart from pic no1, the last three I would say look like the Himalayas, (never been there ), the first looks a bit like some woods I know, but mainly gardens that have got out of control.

 

Are you on acid soil Pete?

 

No, not really, kind of neutral.

 

Interesting observations, geographically, if it's not on the Great Orme (North Wales) then it hasn't been discovered yet , yet Holly is actually absent from the Great Orme.. replaced I suspect by it's laurel forest counterpart Arbutus unedo (which does better in Alkaline soils). Very acid, sandy soil here, suits Holly right down to the ground, but also Hebe's which have made an escape for it! There seems to be specific woodland selection though which includes; Ilex aquifolium, Rhododendron ponticum, Ulex europaeus and Betula pendula.

 

Looks similar to many places around here, sandy, acidic soil and plenty of Rhodos and Holly.

 

Strange, I never associated holly with acid soil?

 

I suspect Holly will tolerate a wider range of soils than Rhododendron as it's spread probably covers a larger variety of soil types (Britain, France, Spain and North Africa), although I imagine it looks best in the sandy, acid type soils of which the primary plants of the Ilex species originated (Canary Islands, and Madeira).. of course it's had to adapt as it's spread north, and then receded south through time.

Which begs a questions, whilst Rhododendron will look very sick in alkaline soil, it will still survive, over time, potentially, if Rhododendron (that's the pontic variety), where continually planted in alkaline soil.. there would potentially be a strain that grew well in Alkaline soil (in evolutionary terms).. however that form (pontic variety) of Rhododendron would almost certainly change in appearance. Look at the difference between Rhododendron japonica, and the Vireya Rhododendrons for a suggestion of how plants would change characteristics if alkaline tolerant species were evolved. (Vireyas are the alkaline tolerant species, although still prefer acidic soil)

 

I live next to Wareham forest of which a part is bog, full of Heather, Gorse, Pine and Sundews, it is acidic but there are quite a few Holly bushes and trees there too.