Common alder can be found along riversides, and in fens and wet woodlands. Its exposed roots provide shelter for fish, and its rounded leaves are food for aquatic insects.

Ordinary moss is very common in gardens and woodlands. moss provides shelter for many minibeasts, so encourage it to grow in your garden by providing logs, stone piles and untidy areas.

The sand lizard is extremely rare due to the loss of its sandy heath and dune habitats. Reintroduction programmes have helped establish new populations.

A fluffy-looking grass of rough grassland, roadside verges and disturbed ground, False oat-grass is very familiar and often overlooked; in fact, it can help to stabilise dunes and shelter small…

Ivy is one of our most familiar plants, seen climbing up trees, walls, and along the ground, almost anywhere. It is a great provider of food and shelter for all kinds of animals, from butterflies…

The bright blue, trumpet-shaped flowers of the marsh gentian contrast deeply with the pinks and purples of the wet heaths it inhabits. The New Forest holds a large population of this late-…