The Wilderness SSSI, Isle of Wight


The Wilderness is a Site of Special Scientific Interest which is located on the Isle of Wight, England. It is close to the village of Rookley in the valley of the River Medina. The Wilderness is an area of wet woodland over a quite deep peat soil with adjacent areas of unimproved acid grassland and wet grassland. The SSSI covers an area of, the boundaries being reset in 1984 to exclude an area of grassland which had been artidicially improved.

Habitat

Wilderness woodlands are not ancient woods and appear to have resulted from colonisation of trees on former grazing land and some parts of the site were open until relatively recently. The dominant species in the woodland are common oak, with a few silver birch and common alder making up the balance. The shrub layer is dominated by brambles and there are two areas of bog myrtle, numbering 20 bushes altogether and making up what may be the largest population of this species left on the Isle of Wight. The ground vegetation has areas where the dominant plant is the tussock sedge and some of these exceed in height while the wettest parts of the wood retain relicts of the flora of the original open bog such as Sphagnum auriculatum. The grassland adjacent to the wood is home to a variety of species typical of wet, acidic grassland, species and their habitat which are uncommon on the Isle of Wight. The most diverse area of the Wilderness SSSI is where water flushes out of the soil and the sward is dominated by sedges and rushes among which are cottongrass and other wetland grasses and herbs. In summary, the Wilderness is an unusual site where oak and alder woodland has grown in peaty soils, where the herb layer is dominated by large clumps of tussock sedge.