Talk:Wistman's Wood

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Folklore[edit]

Not sure if there's a desire to include something like this, but I'll place it here in case anyone wants it in the future: There is much folklore surrounding Wistman's Wood. This passage comes from the Ruth Manning-Sanders book The River Dart, published in 1951: "The Wish Hounds are truly formidable. They hunt by night, breathing blue flame, and behind them runs the Dark Master with a pole slung at his back for leaping morasses. They are seldom seen, but even to hear them, as they pass baying in their pursuit of the souls of unbaptised children, brings misfortune. Should you be unlucky enough to see them, you must cower in silence until the hunt sweeps by, for to speak a word in the presence of the Dark Master is death." Otto1970 (talk) 05:04, 27 January 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I remember my father telling me that Wistman's Wood was the only place on Dartmoor that had no birds. The wood was so eerie that the birds were frightened to enter the woods. Thus the woods are spookily quiet, adding to the sinister atmosphere. 92.14.228.69 (talk) 10:19, 27 July 2010 (UTC) John Luscombe 92.14.228.69 (talk) 10:19, 27 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Flora[edit]

The flora section currently states "The vegetation conforms mostly to W17a Quercus petraea-Betula pubescens-Dicranum majus woodland [...] in the British National Vegetation Classification. The trees are mainly pedunculate oak, with occasional rowan, and a very few holly, hawthorn, hazel, and eared-willow." The second sentence contradicts the first. Quercus petraea is sessile oak, not pedunculate, and what is the status of Betula pubescens (downy birch)? PaleCloudedWhite (talk) 23:45, 27 May 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, I came here to ask the same question about the oak species. Are they mainly Quercus petraea or Quercus robur? RhinoMind (talk) 19:42, 5 January 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Found this "Wistman’s Wood is notable as a high-altitude relict surviving on a granite clitter slope. Unusually for old oak woods in the UK, it is dominated by pedunculate oak Quercus robur rather than sessile oak Q. petraea", so the W17a designation must be wrong too. DuncanHill (talk) 23:32, 5 January 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Great. RhinoMind (talk) 00:33, 6 January 2020 (UTC)[reply]