Bewick and Beanley Moors in association with old collapsing heather bushes. Conifer plantations aside, the moors have little woodland cover; what exists is found on the boundaries and following the paths of streams at lower elevations. Spwecies include alder ("Alnus glutinosa"), hawthorn ("Crataegus monogyna"), brown birch ("Betula pubescens"), rowan ("Sorbus aucuparia") and occasional ash ("Fraxinus excelsior"), and ground-cover of yellow pimpernel ("Lysimachia nemorum"), wood sorrel ("Oxalis acetosella") and smooth-stalked sedge ("Carex laevigata"). As with the bogs, so the woodland also provide transition locations, such as from wet birch-wood to purple moor-grass or to bogs of lesser pond-sedge ("Carex acutiformis"). Other wood species found include
Mountain Ash East Newtown, Caegarw, Cwmpennar and Cefnpennar. According to the 2011 UK Census Mountain Ash East had a population of 2,909. Mountain Ash East includes the village's Grade II listed St Margaret's Church, designed by John Pollard Seddon. An electoral ward of Mountain Ash East pre-existed the community. The ward elects one county councillor to Rhondda Cynon Taf County Borough Council. Since 1995 the ward has been represented on the council by Plaid Cymru councillor, Pauline Jarman, who was previously a councillor on Cynon Valley Borough Council. She first stood for election in 1976. Cllr Jarman has been leader of the Plaid