Wooded meadow

Wooded meadows (also named as wood-meadow, park meadow, etc.) are ecosystems in temporal forest region, sparse natural stands with a regularly mown herbaceous layer.

While frequent in many areas of Europe in Medieval period, these have largely disappeared due to the changes in land management towards more intensive type of agroecosystems. The typical traditional wooded meadows have been longer in use in the Baltic area – in Southern Sweden and particularly in Estonia.

Wooded meadows are very rich in species. In some of current Estonian wooded meadows there have been recorded the world highest plant species densities (up to 76 species of vascular plants on a square meter).