United Kingdom - Flora and fauna



United Kingdom Flora And Fauna 1822
Photo by: Dual Aspect

With its mild climate and varied soils, the United Kingdom has a diverse pattern of natural vegetation. Originally, oak forests probably covered the lowland, except for the fens and marsh areas, while pine forests and patches of moorland covered the higher or sandy ground. Over the centuries, much of the forest area, especially on the lowlands, was cleared for cultivation. Today only about 9% of the total surface is wooded. Fairly extensive forests remain in east and north Scotland and in southeast England. Oak, elm, ash, and beech are the most common trees in England. Pine and birch are most common in Scotland. Almost all the lowland outside the industrial centers is farmland, with a varied seminatural vegetation of grasses and flowering plants. Wild vegetation consists of the natural flora of woods, fens and marshes, cliffs, chalk downs, and mountain slopes, the most widespread being the heather, grasses, gorse, and bracken of the moorlands.

The fauna is similar to that of northwestern continental Europe, although there are fewer species. Some of the larger mammals—wolf, bear, boar, and reindeer—are extinct, but red and roe deer are protected for sport. Common smaller mammals are foxes, hares, hedgehogs, rabbits, weasels, stoats, shrews, rats, and mice; otters are found in many rivers, and seals frequently appear along the coast. There are few reptiles and amphibians. Roughly 230 species of birds reside in the United Kingdom, and another 200 are migratory. Most numerous are the chaffinch, blackbird, sparrow, and starling. The number of large birds is declining, however, except for game birds—pheasant, partridge, and red grouse—which are protected. With the reclamation of the marshlands, waterfowl are moving to the many bird sanctuaries. The rivers and lakes abound in salmon, trout, perch, pike, roach, dace, and grayling. There are more than 21,000 species of insects.

User Contributions:

1
Bob Rickel
Report this comment as inappropriate
Jun 1, 2007 @ 8:20 pm
21,847 bugs inhabit most of england marches. The most common of the insects is the Caddiysfly.
2
selena
Report this comment as inappropriate
Apr 21, 2008 @ 9:21 pm
This is an excellent article that I believe will be of great help to you.
3
Hilary Duff
Report this comment as inappropriate
Sep 12, 2009 @ 12:00 am
My daughter, Lisa, is doing a project on england's flora and fauna and she found that this webpage was great help to her.
4
School Kid
Report this comment as inappropriate
Sep 14, 2009 @ 8:20 pm
I was doing a school assesment and this information helped thank you
5
johnny depp
Report this comment as inappropriate
Dec 23, 2009 @ 7:07 am
this site is amazing but it didnt really help me but ohwel i learned alot from it
6
Report this comment as inappropriate
Feb 15, 2011 @ 12:12 pm
really helpful to my report!hope to use this site again soon!
7
Report this comment as inappropriate
Feb 21, 2011 @ 5:05 am
This is very helpful to me. I was doing a geography project on england and this helped tons!
8
Mehul
Report this comment as inappropriate
Aug 26, 2011 @ 11:11 am
Extremely Informative!!!Helped alot in School Projects.
9
Scott
Report this comment as inappropriate
Oct 15, 2012 @ 9:09 am
this website helped tons but the flora section could use more detailed information.
10
Allison Salmon
Report this comment as inappropriate
Apr 25, 2013 @ 4:16 pm
I really like this website. It helped a lot. I am definitely recommending this site to my friends.
11
Alena
Report this comment as inappropriate
Jan 3, 2014 @ 5:05 am
Thank you very much for this website. I'm preparing for english exam and it helped me a lot.
12
sowhat
Report this comment as inappropriate
May 1, 2014 @ 8:20 pm
Really helped and really informational. thank you. it was really helpful on my report
13
bub
Report this comment as inappropriate
Feb 3, 2015 @ 3:15 pm
web page very help full on school essay, would recommend to others. thx
14
Diddums
Report this comment as inappropriate
Feb 12, 2015 @ 1:13 pm
I AM DOING GEOG HOMEWORK ON FLORA ANF FAUNA AND THIS REALLY HELPED^_^
15
anonyymi
Report this comment as inappropriate
Feb 21, 2016 @ 3:03 am
Doing my geography project. This is amazing source!
16
Watch Dogz
Report this comment as inappropriate
Sep 25, 2017 @ 1:13 pm
I'm doing a school project on England (even though I am not one of its residents) on a food web of flora/fauna in that area. I find this to be very informational and helpful towards the project. Thanks you! :D
17
Jay siwach
Report this comment as inappropriate
Jul 6, 2019 @ 11:11 am
Actually , I didn't get the exact answer which I was trying to search. I wanna search the climatic condition required for the flora of U.K ...

Comment about this article, ask questions, or add new information about this topic: