1. The Metropolitan Area.

The Eocene soils of North-West Kent are variable, including the heavy, almost neutral London Clay; the sands and sandy loams of the Thanet Beds; the droughty gravels of the Blackheath Pebble beds; and the somewhat heavy, alkaline soils of the Woolwich Shell Beds. All these are underlain by chalk at varying depths; it is sometimes only just beneath the surface. In such places it has often been quarried, and chalk pits are a feature of this area. These varied soils give a good range bryophyte habitats, some quite rich. Three very good, extensive woods are still found -- Abbey Wood, Joydens Wood and Farningham Wood. A fragment of Spring Park Wood, West Wickham, lies within the county, but is mostly in Surrey. The Crofton Woods are, perhaps, the best example of oak wood on London Clay in the area.

The three big woods all have extensive areas of oak-birch wood, with some conifers, on gravels; stooled chestnut woodland; and some good loamy rides on Thanet Beds. Chalk exposures are occasionally seen. The typical mosses of rides are Catharinea undulata, (L.), Web. et Mohr, Ceratodon purpureus, (L.), Brid., Dicranella heteromalla, (L.) ,Schp. , Rhytidiadelphus squarrosus, (L.) , Warnst. , Oxyrrhynchium praelongum, (Hedw.), Warnst. and Dicranum scoparium, (L.), Hedw., whilst in Joydens Wood are found Dicranum majus, Sm. and Breidleria arcuata, (Lindb.), Loesk. On sloping banks are Mnium hornun, (L.) and Leucobryum glaucum, (L.), Schp., and the mosses of chestnut stools are Plagiothecium denticulatum, (L.), B.S. et G., Georgia pellucida, (L.), Rabenh., Aulacomnium androgynum, (L.), Schwaegr., Dicranella heteromalla, (L.), Schp. , Orthodicranum montanum, (Hedw.), Loesk. and Hypnum cupressiforme, L.

Abbey Wood has been well studied. Dillenius visited it and recorded Aulacomnium androgynum, (L.),Schwaegr. with fruit. This was still present in Mitten's day, and he also made the first British record of Dolicotheca silesiaca, (Selig.), Fleisch. from this wood. Later, H.C. Napier and St. John Marriott both made detailed studies here and published lists of mosses (see bibliography). Dolicotheca silesiaca, (Selig.), Fleisch. was found by Marriott, but not since, and Aulacomnium androgynum, (L.), Schwaegr. no longer fruits. Unfortunately atmospheric pollution has so decreased the number of species here that the wood is now very poor in mosses and even Dicranun scoparium, (L.) , Hedw. is no longer found. Joydens and Farningham have not so suffered, and in parts of the latter can be seen Leucobryum glaucum, (L. ), Schp. at its best in Kent. Although widely distributed, this plant seems only at home in the county in the sandy woods of the Eocene here and in the east around Littlebourne.

The London Clay woods are poor in mosses, such common species as Fissidens taxifolius, (L.), Hedw., Cirriphylum piliferum, (Schreb.), Grout, Calliergonella cuspidata, (L.), Loesk. and similar species usually being found, although a few ponds are interesting. Rose has found Mnium punctatum, L. and Bryum ventricosum, Dicks. A few good heaths still exist in the area, but are only a fading fragment of what they must once have been. Sherard's record of Splachnum ampullaceum, L. (1724) from between West Wickham and Addington, is the only one for Kent (although George recorded it from Keston in 1875). The bogs have gradually been eliminated by drainage and by the removal of underground water and the drying out of springs following suburban development. Horrell recorded sphagna from Chislehurst fairly recently (1920), but today Keston is the only remaining bog, although a few boggy areas exist in woodland rides. Keston is particularly good; fifteen Warnstorfian species of Sphagnum have been seen since 1936, and Polytrichum commune, L., Aulacomnium palustre, (L.), Schwaegr. and Plagiothecium undulatum, (L.), B.S.et G. still grow there. Sphagnum squarrosum, Pers., apparently once widespread in the area, (records from Keston, Chislehurst and Joydens Wood), is now extinct.

The dry heath at Keston is also good. Campylopus flexuosus,(L.) Brid., Pleurozium schreberi, (Willd.), Mitt., Dicranum scoparium, (L.), Hedw. and Hypnum cupressiforme, L., var. ericetorum, B.S-et G are abundant. Leptodontium flexifolium, (Dicks.), Hamp. is still found in one place near the Windmill. This species is now much rarer than it was, as older records indicate that it grew on several heaths here, extending westwards into Surrey. Hayes Common, Chislehurst Common and Dartford Heath all have an interesting moss flora, but no uncommon species have recently been recorded from them. Blackheath and Greenwich Park, which were probably very good localities at one time, are now so enveloped by London that very few species survive. Ceratodon purpureus, (L.), Brid. is the common moss. The full present lists are in my field notes.

Shooters Hill, the highest hill in the area, and the only place over 450 ft. high, has a gravel cap, but is mainly London Clay. This too is now too built over to be of interest, although Ray found Rhodobryum roseum, (Weis), Limpr. there.

The coastal strip along the Thames estuary, extending from the Surrey Docks to the Dartford Marshes, is not very interesting bryologically. The riverside from London as far as the Arsenal is almost covered with docks, wharves and riverside sheds, factories and waste ground. Here are riverside shacks, store-sheds, piles of timber, esparto grass, sacks, fertilisers and an amazing range of other commodities, stretching for miles between Greenwich and Woolwich. The waste areas probably produce an interesting phanerogamic flora, and the imported timber might have exotic epiphytic species of mosses; the only mosses I have recorded from this stretch of river are Tortula muralis, (L.), Hedw. and Bryum argenteum, L.

East of Woolwich are the extensive Plumstead Marshes. Next to the Arsenal are the remains of old explosives works, embanked round the individual buildings, now ruinous or gone, to prevent extensive damage by blast in the event of an explosion. Attempts at allotment cultivation, old shacks and waste land cover the derelict area. I saw it in March, 1953, just after inundation by sea-water during the exceptional tides of that spring, and a more desolate area it would be difficult to find anywhere. The belvedere marshes, now largely built on, were only a little better, and the extensive sewage works all help to make the marsh area hardly worth visiting. Drepanocladus aduncus, (Hedw.), Moenkm. and Cratoneurum filicinum, (L.), Roth are occasional at the margins of fresh-water dykes, but dirty, peaty water with Arundo is the common ditch habitat type.

The Pool River, the Ravensbourne, the Cray and the Darent are the streams which flow through the area. Urban development along their banks is not conducive to a good flora, although the Ravensbourne at its source flows through Keston Common, which has already been described. Their flora has, however, not recently been described and might be wider than is supposed. The Darent in its upper reaches in the chalk country is good, but mills and intensive arable farming along its lover levels make it difficult to study here. There are fairly extensive watercress beds at Sutton-at-Hone.

Most of the open land in the eastern part of the area is intensively farmed, market gardening being the main form of agriculture practised. Fruit plantations are found around Swanley, the Crays and Orpington, although these are diminishing as building increases. Intensive cultivation does not allow fallow field mosses much chance to grow, but one extensive area of unprofitable arable orchards adjoining Farningham Wood, which had been left somewhat derelict, was studied. Here were stretches of Thanet Sand and Blackheath Pebble Beds, with a narrow band of Woolwich Shell Beds. The acid soil mosses were Ceratodon purpureus, (L.), Brid., which was abundant as the land approached semi-heathy conditions, Bryum erythrocarpum, Schwaegr., and, where compacted, Barbula convoluta, Hedw. Pottia truncatula, (L.), Lindb. and Phascum acaulon, L., grow on the alkaline shell-beds.

Swanley and Hextable are the centre of a large glasshouse growing industry. Pot plants are commonly growm. On flower pots and beneath stagings Funaria hygrometrica, (L.), Sibth. and Leptobryum pyriforme, (L.), Wils. are very common, whilst in a few houses, notably arum houses, Bryuzn bimum, Schreb. was found in quantity.

The chalk pits of the area are not very interesting now, but more study might shots a fuller flora. The nearness of good chalk country tends to result in neglect of the rather open, dry, small pits and enclosures. Marriott (1925) describes one such exposure in Abbey Wood.

Sand cuttings, as at Swanley Junction Station, have abundant mosses, but almost exclusively Ceratodon purpureus, (L.), Brid. Urban development has largely spoilt this once-rich area, but even now the few good woods and commons are amongst the finest in the Home Counties.

Page maintained by Susan Laflin in memory of her father Thomas Laflin
Last updated January 2005.