Beacon Hill, Warnford, Hampshire
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- There are two hills is Hampshire called Beacon Hill; the other one is near Burghclere
Beacon Hill, Warnford, Hampshire (grid reference SU604234) is a 44.8 hectare biological SSSI, west of the village of Warnford in Hampshire, England, first notified in 1979.
The site consists of the steep slopes of a chalk spur on the western side of the Meon valley, covered by chalk grassland, beech / ash / hazel woodland and chalk scrub. There are two separate sections, which are not joined to each other - a main section, and a second, smaller area, to the north.
The grassland at the site has Sheep’s fescue (Festuca ovina), salad burnet (Sanguisorba minor) and common rock-rose (Helianthemum nummularium) as its dominant species. Other species present are horseshoe vetch (Hippocrepis comosa), yellow-wort (Blackstonia perfoliata), fragrant orchid (Gymnadenia conopsea) and clustered bellflower (Campanula glomerata).
The grassland supports several rarer species - Rampion (Phyteuma tenerum), field fleawort (Senecio integrifolius), hairy rock-cress (Arabis hirsuta) and man orchid (Aceras anthropophorum).
The site's butterfly fauna in mentioned as in its citation sheet. Twenty-five species are known to breed, including colonies of silver–spotted skipper and Duke of Burgundy, together with comparatively large populations of brown argus, green hairstreak, chalkhill blue, marbled white and dingy skipper.
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