A walk through the bare trees of Epping Forest in search of Butcher's Broom. Ruscus aculeatus is quite a rare shrub of ancient woodlands; evergreen with small green flowers in early spring and marble sized red berries in autumn.
 I had read that it can be found here, though it certainly isn't common. During the course of several hours walking I found only a few patches of it.
 This is a very tough, spiky, spiny plant: so much so that bundles of the stems were indeed used by butchers to sweep and scour their chopping blocks.