Chat Moss along with Risley Moss and Holcroft Moss, is also a European Union designated Special Area of Conservation, known as Manchester Mosses. The major habitats in the moss are bog, heathland, woodland and acidic grassland, subject to varying degrees of wetness depending on the local drainage. The remaining areas of bog are dominated by common cottongrass "Eriophorum angustifolium" and hare's-tail cottongrass "E. vaginatum". Bog mosses are more scarce, but "Sphagnum cuspidatum", "S. recurvum", "S. tenellum", "S. fimbriatum" and "S. subnitens" occur in patches. As the peat has become drier, areas have been taken over by purple moor grass "Molinia caerulea" and
Portlethen Moss saturated organic layers could actually rupture, spilling large volumes of mud and organic debris to surrounding fields, thus enabling a bed for further spatial expansion of the entire bog. Ultimately the colour of the moss waters became blood red in colour, from the successive organic decay and stagnation. Only in times associated with cattle grazing and significant human presence (probably the late Iron Age), would this process reverse and the bog reduce in size. A wide variety of sphagnum, sedges, rushes and other characteristic bog species inhabit Portlethen Moss. Sometimes insectivorous plants reside in mosses, since the soils are generally