January issue of BSBI News is out!

It's always exciting to hear from Membership Secretary Gwynn Ellis that the latest issue of BSBI News has been mailed out but this time it's twice as exciting as usual! The January issue, which Gwynn mailed out to all BSBI members yesterday, is the first one which Gwynn has not edited himself with the assistance of Receiving Editor Trevor James. They have handed over the editorial reins to Andrew Branson of British Wildlife fame and I for one can't wait to see what changes Andrew has made.

The image on the left shows the front cover which does look quite different. The featured plant, a Henbane, was one of the winners in the BSBI Photographic Competition.

Andrew was kind enough to allow me a peek at the table of contents, so here are a few of the items members can look forward to:

Four features including two already covered on these pages: Kevin, Pete and Bob from the BSBI Science Team on their new Threatened Plants book, and Richard Lansdown, Mags Cousins et al. on the Least Water-lily in Shropshire. But then there are two features exclusive to BSBI News: Fred Rumsey on Teucrium chamaedrys and Clive Chatters on British saltmarshes.

Then there are ten articles on subjects raging from Northern Dock to host plants for Dodder in Guernsey by way of Early Orache, Convergent Stonewort and hybrid helleborines.

There's a new 'Beginner's Corner' feature - this first one has an article by Andrew himself on choosing and using hand lenses - an identification section, where John Poland reports on identifying woody plants in winter, five articles in the 'Adventives and Aliens' section, country round-ups from across Britain and Ireland, reviews, obituaries, short notes... 

BSBI members will be salivating and fanning themselves by now but if you are not yet a member, I'm afraid you'll just have to join now so you can see the new-look BSBI News in all its finery.