Flora

The underlying geology of the Forest of Dean is limestone and sandstone and has resulted in a rich and varied flora.

The Forest is home to many wild flowers. From mid-winter the snowdrops begin to show covering the forest floor with a blanket of white. There is wood anemone, celandine, dogs mercury, primroses, crocuses and violets which bloom before the overhead foliage thickens in the spring. The steeper slopes of the Wye Valley often have herb paris, sanicle, sweet woodruff and yellow archangel.

There are wild daffodils which bring a shot of bright yellow welcoming spring. The area is well known for its 'Golden Triangle' of Daffodils, best seen between March and April. The pungent wild garlic is also seen covering the forest floor in April and May.

We have one of the best displays of wild bluebells in the world. This iconic spring flower grows in ancient deciduous woodlands of which we have plenty and carpets the forest floor during the spring. Find out more and some of the best locations in the Forest of Dean and Wye Valley to see the bluebells here.

Foxgloves are bright pinky-purple tubular flowers which grow across the Forest of Dean in June and bring a vibrancy to the rich greens of the trees and ferns. The bees absolutely love them and disappear into their trumpets for a nectar feast. The foxglove is an iconic symbol of British spring and is widespread in our ancient forest. It has many names too including dead man’s bells, fairy's cap, fairy's finger, lady’s thimble, lion’s mouth, throatwort, witch's bells or thimbles and in Welsh it is maneg ellyllon or the fairy's glove. In the Forest of Dean they are known as snompers, but no-one can say where the name came from. This is also a poisonous plant, with digitalis poisoning featuring in many murder mysteries such as Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Homes series and several Agatha Christie novels.

The Forest of Dean is a haven for many different types of fungi and there are foraging trips from many providers teaching you about the fungi which can be picked and eaten. Puzzlewood is also an ideal location to see many different varieties.

Ferns are most abundant in damp and shady areas and the following are just a small sample which can be found within the Forest of Dean; male, lady, broad buckler, narrow buckler, hard and soft shield, hard fern, harts tongue, various spleenworts and polypody.

Trees of the Forest of Dean and Wye Valley

There are over 20 million trees in the Forest of Dean alone with a wide range of both deciduous and evergreen trees. Predominant is oak, both pedunculate and sessile. Beech is common and sweet chestnut has grown here for many centuries, as well as ash, birch and holly. Conifers include Weymouth pine from 1781, Norway spruce, Douglas fir and larch.

There is a lovely article by BBC Countryfile on the wide variety of trees here.

Our guide to leaf peeping - the pursuit of enjoying the autumn colours - also includes some interesting information about the trees of the Forest of Dean and Wye Valley and what to see where. It can be found here.

The ancient Forest of Dean has changed many times over the centuries. In medieval times it was a royal hunting forest, before becoming a source of timber for the navy's Tudor warships. Read about its history here.

Listen to a soundscape of the Forest of Dean recorded by BBC Springwatch here.

The Cyril Hart Arboretum near the Speech House Hotel also has over 200 species of trees.