People may not realise, but there are rainforests in Britain: awe-inspiring places teeming with life, where verdant lichen and mosses cover everything and ancient trees shelter the nests of declining birds such as redstarts and pied flycatchers.
I was lucky enough to spend a day recently visiting one of these rare temperate rainforests on Bodmin Moor in Cornwall, soaking in the intense green landscape, with its boulders, crags and river gorges, like something from a fairytale. Everywhere you look are epiphytes – plants growing on other plants, life supporting life.
