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14. FLUSHES, where water emerges at the joints of gritstone and the impervious shale, often have almost the only sphagnum moss left (S. recurvum). Sedges, bog asphodel, cranberry, marsh thistle and marsh pennywort may also grow.
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Conifers in the Derwent Valley
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15. PLANTATIONS of conifers have little wildlife interest as the heavy shade stops the growth of most plants. There may be patches of semi-natural woodland surviving as glades. Birds such as crossbills, coal tits and goldcrests live in conifers.
16. SESSILE OAK WOODLANDS are rare survivors of the woodland which once covered most of the landscape. In most areas, grazing has prevented young trees growing, so woodlands have gradually disappeared. Most remaining semi-natural woods are now protected from grazing to allow regeneration. Other trees in the woodland are birch and rowan. The woodland floor often has a rich flora with bilberry, cowberry, wavy hair grass, woodrush, ferns, mosses and lichens (mosses and lichens also grow on trees). Woodland birds may include the pied flycatcher and the green woodpecker, which feeds on ants. Anthills of wood ants are often obvious - please leave them alone.
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17. ESCARPMENTS (steep cliffs usually called edges) of gritstone may have ledges that sheep cannot reach. Luxuriant bilberry, heather and other plants grow here, as well as trees such as rowan. These edges are very popular with climbers and this has caused erosion of the vegetation on the ledges.
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Heather moorland
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Red grouse
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18. Heather (ling) is typical of MOORLAND on mineral soil or shallow peat. Other dwarf shrubs which often grow with it are bilberry and cowberry but where it is managed for grouse, heather is often almost continous over big stretches. Management for grouse means winter burning of small strips in rotation to encourage new growth of heather which is their main food (and is also eaten by sheep in winter). Grouse nest and roost in the tall old heather (as do some birds of prey such as Hen Harrier and Merlin). Heavy grazing of sheep removes the heather which is replaced by mat grass. Wetter land is usually covered with purple moor grass and cross leaved heather. Bracken grows in areas of more fertile soil and is used by birds such as whinchats and ring ouzels in some places.
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Cotton grass
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19. PEAT BOG developed on plateaux during periods of heavy rainfall, particularly from around 600 BC. Peat consists of the remains of vegetation, such as sphagnum mosses, which haven’t decayed because of acidity and lack of oxygen. Traces of the woodland which was engulfed by the peat can sometimes by seen. The sphagnum has nearly disappeared because of acid rain since the Industrial Revolution. Cotton grass (a type of sedge) has taken its place, with cloudberry (a dwarf blackberry) in a few places. Erosion of the peat is common, due mainly to summer fires and overgrazing by sheep (which prevents vegetation from recovering after fires). Where the peat is drier, on the edges of groughs (gullies) and haggs (islands of peat left where the rest has gone), crowberry and bilberry grow. Golden plover and dunlin are typical birds of the peat.
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