Flora of Scotland - Habitats

Habitats

Scotland enjoys a diversity of temperate ecologies, incorporating both deciduous and coniferous woodlands, and moorland, montane, estuarine, freshwater, oceanic, and tundra landscapes. Approximately 14% of Scotland is wooded, much of it forestry plantations, but prior to human clearing there would have been much larger areas of boreal Caledonian and broad-leaved forest. Although much reduced, significant remnants of the native Scots Pine woodlands, can be found in places. 17% of Scotland is covered by heather moorland and peatland. Caithness and Sutherland have one of the largest and most intact areas of blanket bog in the world, supporting a distinctive wildlife community. 75% of Scotland's land is classed as agricultural (including some moorland) with urban areas accounting for around 3% of the total. The number of islands with terrestrial vegetation is nearly 800, about 600 of them lying off the west coast. Scotland has more than 90% of the volume and 70% of the total surface area of fresh water in the United Kingdom. There are more than 30,000 fresh water lochs and 6,600 river systems.

Below the tree line there are several zones of climax forest. Birch dominates to the west and north, Scots Pine with Birch and oak in the eastern Highlands and oak (both Quercus robur and Q. petrea) with Birch in the Central Lowlands and Borders. Much of the Scottish coastline consists of machair, a fertile dune pasture land formed as sea levels subsided after the last ice age. Machairs have received considerable ecological and conservational attention, chiefly because of their unique ecosystems.