Determining ancient woodland indicator plants for practical use: A new approach developed in northwest Germany

- Ancient woodlands with long habitat continuity are important for nature conservation.
- There is a large need for lists of ancient woodland indicator plants with supra-regional applicability.
- We developed a new approach that allows for comprising such lists by using existing data.
- For northwest Germany, we introduce ecologically grounded ancient woodland indicator plants.
- We present potential applications and provide forest management recommendations.