Flora
The steepest slopes are clad in ancient beechwood Fagus sylvatica: a "hanger", in East Hampshire, is just such a beechwood. The plateau is occupied by more beechwood, mixed with other broad-leaved species such as English Oak Quercus robur, Ash Fraxinus excelsior and Hawthorn Crataegus monogyna, and in places is scrubby. A small part of the plateau comprises open grassland with scattered Gorse Ulex europaeus and stands of Bracken Pteridium aquilinum. Other, smaller areas of chalk grassland have recently been recreated elsewhere.
The Common is noted for its wild flowers, with thriving communities of Yellow Archangel Galeobdolon luteum, Wood Spurge Euphorbia amygdaloides and Wood Anemone Anemone nemorosa. Spurge-laurel Daphne laureola is sparsely but widely distributed. The Common is also home to such interesting species as Stinking Hellebore Helleborus foetidus, Green Hellebore H. viridis ssp. occidentalis, Bird's Nest Orchid Neottia nidus-avis, Violet Helleborine Epipactis purpurata, the extreme rarity E. x schulzei (first British record here, 1931), and Green-flowered Helleborine E. phyllanthes.
Read more about this topic: Selborne Common
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“A man’s interest in a single bluebird is worth more than a complete but dry list of the fauna and flora of a town.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)