Irish Members' Conference II

Talk by Fred Rumsey, BSBI's Fern Referee

The first reports are coming in from the Irish Members' Conference and it sounds as though it's a roaring success! Which is no surprise, considering the excellent Maria Long is at the helm, backed up by the Committee for Ireland. 

Maria also sent through the three images on this page, all taken yesterday, but apologies that I don't yet have the photographers' names. 

I hear that Fred Rumsey's fern session went down well, with new member Sheila tweeting:

Sheila Murphy ‏@SheilaMurphy3  6h

Great afternoon @BSBIbotany Irish conference, really enjoyed the variety of topics, ferns, grasslands and grass ID workshops. Super stuff!!

I know that our President Ian Denholm has been looking forward to this meeting. As BSBI's Orchid Co-Referee, he has spent a great deal of time in Ireland over the years, happily measuring labella with Richard Bateman.

Ian Denholm & Irish members
Herbarium, Glasnevin, Dublin

But Ian has been very busy recently with presidenty stuff, so it was great to see this image of him and some of the Irish members (I hope they will send me their names!) examining some interesting herbarium  specimens and obviously engrossed in the task. 

And good to see Chris Metherell hard at work on Euphrasia, bringing the Eyebright handbook ever closer. Apparently Chris was in the Cambridge University Herbarium last month, looking at specimens, so I hope he will send an update soon  about what he found.

Chris Metherell, Irish botanist (?) & Euphrasia (?)

The conference even managed to enthuse one delegate about stoneworts. Although BSBI's brief is the study of vascular plants and charophytes, these unassuming little green things don't often take centre stage. Until you get some proper magnification on them, that is! 

Take a look at Christopher F. Carter's image here which also graced the cover of New Journal of Botany last year and you will understand the enthusiasm here: 

Blackthorn Ecology ‏@BlackthornEcol  6h

Great day at @BSBIbotany Irish conference at Glasnevin. I've learned to love stoneworts!

As soon as I receive more reports/photos from Ireland, I'll post them here on the Blog, so watch this space!