What is Bluebell wood?
[[File:Bluebells wood.jpg|250px|thumb|right|Colonel's Covert, East Leake, South [[Nottinghamshire]]]] [[File:Hallerbos Bluebells.jpg|250px|thumb|right|Bluebell wood, [[Hallerbos]], [[Belgium]]]] [[File:Dane-in-Shaw bluebells.jpg|250px|thumb|right|Bluebells at Dane-in-Shaw Brook SSSI near [[Congleton]]]] A '''bluebell wood''' is a [[woodland]] that in springtime has a carpet of flowering [[bluebell]]s (''Hyacinthoides non-scripta'') underneath a newly forming [[leaf]] [[wikt:canopy|canopy]]. The thicker the summer canopy, the more the ground-cover is suppressed. This encourages a dense carpet of bluebells, whose leaves mature and die down by early summer. Bluebell woods may be found in all parts of [[Great Britain]]<ref>[http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/travel/best_of_britain/article6162468.ece Bluebell woods of Britain]{{Dead link|date=October 2024 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> and [[Ireland]], as well as elsewhere in Europe. Bluebells are a common [[indicator species]] for [[ancient woodland]]s,<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.treeforall.org.uk/AboutTreeForAll/WhyTreeForAll/Nature+notes/bluebells.htm |title=The Woodland Trust |access-date=2013-08-23 |archive-date=2009-04-15 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090415162235/http://www.treeforall.org.uk/AboutTreeForAll/WhyTreeForAll/Nature%2Bnotes/bluebells.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref> so bluebell woods are likely to date back to at least 1600.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/en/why-woods-matter/what-are-they/types/ancient-woodland/Pages/ancient-woods.aspx |title=What is an ancient wood? |access-date=2013-08-23 |archive-date=2013-09-09 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130909093906/http://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/en/why-woods-matter/what-are-they/types/ancient-woodland/Pages/ancient-woods.aspx |url-status=deviated |archivedate=2013-09-09 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20130909093906/http://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/en/why-woods-matter/what-are-they/types/ancient-woodland/Pages/ancient-woods.aspx }}