Grass Wood, Wharfedale cleared through selective felling, many areas of the woodland have the appearance of an early successional stage of advance natural regeneration through mainly saplings of ash, birch and sycamore, this enclosed within a variable canopy of ash, sycamore, beech, oak, and with some birch. Shrubs and small trees in the understorey include bird cherry "Prunus padus", hazel, spindle "Euonymus europaeus", buckthorn "Rhamnus cathartica", wild privet "Ligustrum vulgare", blackthorn "Prunus spinosa" and guelder-rose "Viburnum opulus". The underlying geology ensures that most of the site is well drained, favouring lime-loving plants – the calcicoles. There are, however, localised areas with poorer drainage
Prunus avium parent species of "Prunus cerasus" (sour cherry), by way of ancient crosses between it and "Prunus fruticosa" (dwarf cherry) in the areas where the two species overlap. All three species can breed with one another. "Prunus cerasus" is now a species in its own right, having developed beyond a hybrid and stabilised. Pliny distinguishes between "Prunus", the plum fruit, and "Cerasus", the cherry fruit. Already in Pliny quite a number of cultivars are cited, some possibly species or varieties, Aproniana, Lutatia, Caeciliana, and so on. Pliny grades them by flavour, including dulcis ("sweet") and acer ("sharp"). and goes so far