“Walks in late summer among amethyst heath acquaint us with an exquisite medley of wildlife – all finely tuned to thrive in their specific surroundings."

This large tract of heathland near the River Waveney provides an interesting mix of habitats with an impressive variety of plants. Woodland and scrub, short acid grassland, heathland, ponds and chalky areas combine to provide a delightful selection of wildlife.

Look out for the erect, egg-yellow flowers of golden rod. In the small chalky areas you will find dwarf thistle, wild thyme and dropwort. In the damper hollows Devil’s-bit scabious and tormentil occur. Butterflies are abundant in summer especially along the edges of hedgerows.
Small copper, small heath and gatekeeper are very common and grayling and green hairstreak are present in good numbers. Heather, sheep’s sorrel and gorse feature in the heathland areas along with occasional bee and pyramidal orchid. Plenty of fungi, mosses and lichen can also be seen here.

STAR SPECIES
Green woodpecker
Grayling butterfly (shown left)
Golden Rod

As Wortham Ling is a common, local people (the commoners) have rights to graze up to 200 sheep on the site but nowadays this simply doesn’t happen. Without this traditional grazing the heath and grassland run the risk of being invaded by scrub. To conserve the open character of the area, chalk grassland is mown every year while most of the common is kept closely cropped by rabbit.

Wortham Ling is cared for by Suffolk Wildlife Trust on behalf of the De Lancey & De la Hante Foundation.

Other Trust reserves nearby: Redgrave & Lopham Fen, Thelnetham Fen