Ffridd

Ffridd is a diffuse, zonal habitat in the upland landscape occuring between enclosed farmland and moorland. It is often difficult to define and it is usually quite heterogeneous, being composed of scattered trees, e.g. Sessile Oak (Quercus petraea) and shrubs, e.g. Hawthorn (Crataegus monogyna), Bracken (Pteridium aquilinum), grassland and perhaps fragments of dwarf shrub heath with Heather (Calluna vulgaris) and Bilberry (Vaccinium myrtillus). It usually merges into classic moorland in West Glamorgan or it gives way quite abruptly to conifer plantation. Prior to the extensive coniferisation of the upland landscape that took place after the Second World War, when upland hill farms were more common, ffridd was probably widely distributed above the line of enclosure. It is now a habitat of relatively minor importance in West Glamorgan.