Habitats

Wat Tyler Country park features a number of habitats

A cross section of the habitats found in Wat Tyler Country Park

The 3 main terrestrial habitats in the park are scrub, meadow and saltmarsh, as shown in the diagram above.

Each of these habitats has its own characteristics:

Scrub
Dominated by hawthorn bushes, with some blackthorn, privet, dogwood and wild rose.  These plants block much of the sunlight and rainwater from reaching ground level, so there is little plant growth on the ground.   A few species can cope with these conditions such as cuckoo pint and bramble.

Meadow
A habitat that has a much higher diversity than the scrub.  Most the sunlight and rainwater reaches ground level and as a consequence the ground is covered in plants.  These include many species of grass and wildflowers such as red bartsia, meadow buttercup, dandelion, daisies and yellow rattle.

Saltmarsh
This habitat has plenty of sunlight and water but the soil and most the water contains salt which is harmful to most plants.  Therefore the plants in this habitat are a specially adapted to cope with the salt.  The incoming and out going tide can move the soil which stops the plants growing in the channels.