A woodland soil seed bank

One of the Forest of Dean's great wildflower displays is courtesy of timber harvesting operations, when the woodland soil is disturbed and the change in light regime on the woodland floor from tree felling, breaks the dormancy of seeds buried in the soil. A couple of years after harvesting operations in most areas of the Forest of Dean, a carpet of Foxgloves will rise, until the canopy closes in again, shades out the flowers and seeds again lie buried and dormant in the soil, awaiting another timber harvesting operation to begin the cycle again.

I was fortunate enough to time a visit with minimal wind and some drizzly rain to make some images of a Foxglove carpet in a planted ancient woodland site and tick off another item in an ongoing project on the Forest of Dean.