The Wealden Greensand character area is a hook-shaped sandstone ridge stretching from the Kent coast at Folkestone to the eastern edge of Alton in Hampshire, before curving back again into Sussex. United only by its underlying geology, the area is home to a diverse array of landscapes. The parts in the “true south east” (Kent, Surrey and Sussex) are heavily urbanised, while the Wessex portion is much more rural.
A couple of conservation areas are especially worth noting. Woolmer Forest, straddling the Hampshire/Sussex border, is the only site in Britain which is home to all twelve native species of reptile and amphibian. It was historically included within Selborne parish, and so features prominently in Gilbert White’s pioneering work The Natural History and Antiquities of Selborne,
The East Hampshire Hangers are a range of hills named for the narrow strips of woodland that “hang” onto its ravines. Most of these are beech, but some are a rare example of Tilio-Acerian forests, a mixture of ash, wych-elm and lime trees. Its grasslands play host to early gentian (Gentianella anglica), an endangered plant species endemic to Great Britain and mostly found on Wessex downlands, though there are a few colonies in Lincolnshire, Cornwall and South Wales.