Abraham Wood, Boars Hill - Saturday, 7th June 2025

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Blog by Sally.  Photos by Eleanor, Julio and Sally

For the first session of our summer programme, on 7th June, we went to Abraham Wood, which is one of the Boars Hill sites owned by Oxford Preservation Trust.  This lovely wood on the Boars Hill escarpment immediately adjacent to Old Berkeley Golf Course is beset by problems with invasive species including non-native species such as bamboo, laurel and small balsam and the native pendulous sedge and holly, all of which in their own way block out light or spread such that other native flora find it difficult to compete.  We had a good turnout of 15 Green Gymmers, led by Eleanor, who asked us to split into two groups, the first to pull up small balsam and the second was tasked with removing the flowering stems of pendulous sedge (which give it its name) to prevent them from producing babies.

Abraham Wood - a beautiful bluebell wood

Eleanor briefs the group

 
Small Balsam - it might look harmless, but it spreads rapidly forming dense patches, blocking light preventing other plants from flourishing

Rich pickings

Whilst the main group tackled small balsam, the rest of us made for the bottom end of the wood near the stream in search of pendulous sedge.  It wasn't long before we found some, but we knew this was not the main patch that we'd been asked to tackle.

The flowering stems of pendulous sedge, which give the plant its name

A beautiful stand of foxgloves - there might be more of these if it weren't for the invasive species

We soon found the the pendulous sedge grove in the Wood, stretching as far as the eye could see (almost):


Plucking pendulous sedge flowering stems

A clump of small balsam showing how dense it (and the holly!) grows and what lies beneath

A welcome break

More small balsam pulling

The grove of pendulous sedge after our efforts

Having filled two bags with pendulous sedge flowering stems, we had to resort to adding to an existing heap of cut vegetation.

A brown lipped snail 

A snout-nosed moth

It was soon time for us to collect our bags and make our way home.  We hope to arrange a few evenings to pull more small balsam before it sets seed as, like its larger cousin, Himalayan Balsam, the seed heads pop when they are ripe, spreading the seeds far and wide.  The battle is on!

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