Guided walk looking at the diverse plant communities in this urban secondary/ancient woodland.

Please note booking is essential for this event

Join the Sydenham Hill Wood Conservation Officer and London Wildlife Trust volunteers for a guided wildflower walk. Please note this is not a foraging event. The Wood is a remnant of the once vast Great North Wood which stretched from Deptford to Selhurst, a wildwood that colonised the landscape after the end of the Ice Age 10,000 years ago.

The Wood has undergone much change and disturbance in the past 150 years meaning that the plant communities have changed and adapted to the conditions enforced upon them by man. Many of the Wood’s most common plants are colonisers of disturbed ground. The now closed Crystal Palace High Level railway allowed for the arrival of spectacular plants like rosebay willowherb, which is a mainstay of the Wood’s main glade in summer.

Attendees require no knowledge prior to the walk but an appreciation of conservation and the pressures on urban wildlife are important to bear in mind. Wildflowers are threatened at the Wood by trampling in sensitive areas, nutrification from dog fouling and the impacts of thoughtless foraging. These are all topics which will be discussed during the walk.

For your own safety please wear clothing suitable for the conditions, including sturdy footwear.

If there is inclement weather the walk will be postponed to a later date.

This is a free walk, donations to London Wildlife Trust are welcome.

Event Location

Inside the Crescent Wood Road entrance by the London Wildlife Trust noticeboard,
Sydenham Hill Wood,
Dulwich,
London,
SE26 6LS

Booking Essential