About the reserve

Landford is a designated Site of Special Scientific Interest set within the New Forest National Park. We are grazing the reserve with cattle to keep scrub down and stop trees encroaching. Volunteers help with scrub clearance, coppicing, fencing and other tasks.

The bog is a floating carpet of feathery moss with expanses of heather and purple moor-grass. Look for sundews – small carnivorous plants that use sticky red tentacles to trap small insects. Its spoon-shaped leaves curl up around prey so it can be digested. Also carnivorous, the pale butterwort has tiny pink flowers and uses a rosette of leaves at the base of its stem to trap insects. In summer see the yellow bog asphodel and the frilly bogbean. Look for the yellow-striped raft spider; one of the UK’s largest, at the edge of puddles. It uses sensory hairs on its front legs to detect ripples made by insects. Once alerted, it skates across the surface and overcomes its prey. On a hot day you can see the metallic green tiger beetle, dragonflies and damselflies in flight. Listen for grasshoppers and crickets around your feet. Along the eastern side of the reserve is wet woodland of broadleaved willow.