In their 2017 Dallington Forest Ancient and Veteran Tree Survey, Jamie Simpson and John Smith write:
The mosaic of habitats and their connectivity within the Dallington forest project area is what makes it a special and interesting place. The habitats that have been created by soils, topography, aspect and man include streams, heathland, grassland (within the forms of fields, glades and woodland rides), hedgerows and shaws (of varying size), scattered trees (including natural regeneration) and woodland.
The woodland types are wide ranging with National vegetation classification types W4, W6, W7, W8, W10, W12, W15, W16 present, even within the ghylls there is great variation. The importance of the woodland types is represented in the different plant assemblages and their probable invertebrate and fungal species associations. Indeed, Sansum (2010) writes “The acidic oak-beech forest and fen alderwood around a gill running through Dallington Forest harbour one of the richest woodland floras in East Sussex”.
Each habitat has been given its own page as follows: –