0 a large fern (= a type of plant) that grows thickly in open areas of countryside, especially on hills, and in woods
They vary from heather moorland to agrostis pastures invaded by gorse and bracken.
The percentage cover of grasses, bracken, heather, and moss was estimated using ten randomly positioned 0.25 m2 quadrats.
The forest/savanna boundaries were well-defined with graminoid species dominating to the forest edge in most areas, where some bracken was also present.
The suppression of bracken and regenerating woodland scrub is also detrimental to the conservation of much of its flora.
Kuhn (bracken) and containing charred stumps of trees indicates that forest retreat has been widespread in the recent past.
Routine annual management has been carried out to try to suppress bracken colonisation,9 as well as periodic attempts to clear extensive areas of gorse and scrub.
Grassland communities predominated but the different tone and texture in the central portion of the common suggests bracken and gorse colonisation.
Forest recovery in these areas seems to be exceptionally slow, and repeated fires in the bracken-covered areas appears to lead to their gradual transformation into graminoid-dominated savanna.
