Interview with Roger Maskew & Gareth Knass, co-authors of BSBI Handbook #26: Wild Roses of Great Britain and Ireland

There’s a new addition to the series of BSBI Handbooks: we are delighted to announce that Wild Roses of Great Britain and Ireland will be published this autumn. BSBI members will be able to benefit from an exclusive introductory offer of £16 (excl. P&P) which will save them £9 compared the RRP of £25.

I spoke to Roger Maskew (RM) and Gareth Knass (GK), the authors of the new Handbook, to find out about their botanical back-stories and how they became interested in roses.

LM: Before we start talking about the new Handbook, could you both tell us a bit more about yourselves please? How did you get started as botanists, and when did you join the BSBI?  

RM: My main interest as a teenager in the late 1950s was bird-watching, and since 1958 I have submitted many field records annually to the West Midland Bird Club. A serious interest in botany commenced in the late 1960s, and I eventually joined the BSBI in 1983. After many years of recording I published The Flora of Worcestershire in 2014. My interest in roses started in the 1970s and by the mid-1980s I had started to send specimens away for determination firstly to Gordon Graham and then to Tony Primavesi who helped me enormously to begin to get to grips with the genus. I became a BSBI rose referee in 1995. I wrote the Rosa account in the Hybrid Flora of the British Isles in 2015 before commencing work on a new handbook with GDK in 2020.

GK: Thanks to encouragement from my parents, I have always had an interest in many aspects of natural history, starting with birds, which has been a lifelong passion, and moving onto botany in an ad hoc way my late teens. I occasionally joined local Ashmolean and Cotswold rare plant group outings in Oxfordshire when living there between 1999-2003, then regularly in Hampshire (2001-onwards) run by the Hampshire Flora Group, whose leaders and regular field outing participants really helped develop my general botanical skills. I think I joined the BSBI about 15 years ago. 

LM: So, what drew you both to roses as a genus?

RM: I noticed the beauty of the shrubs when flowering and began to want to know more about them.

GK: I would often puzzle over the identification of roses, and being lucky to be close to good populations of the southern species Rosa micrantha and Rosa stylosa, I learned how to separate these interesting species. I spent a long time trying to find ‘Rosa obtusifolia’, or Rosa tomentella as it is now known, and Downy-roses, both of which are generally quite scarce in many parts of the south east. I only really started to find and identify these less common species just before I met Roger (RM) in 2016, when he was invited to record roses in the New Forest by BSBI Vice-County Recorder Martin Rand, and Martin also invited a small number of local botanists including myself. Following this meeting, Roger then cemented my interest in Rosa, provided mentoring to grow my knowledge of the taxa, inviting me on further recording trips, and introducing me to finer identification pointers and the issues of hybrid determination.

LM: What made you decide to take the leap from liking and recording members of this genus to taking on the mantle of being a Handbook author? Did you put yourselves forward or were you encouraged by fellow botanists who saw a need for this Handbook?

RM: We decided there was a need for a new handbook, as the previous BSBI Handbook (Graham & Primavesi, 1993) was out of print, and the taxonomy and nomenclature of roses had changed since it was first published. 

GK: Roger approached me after a recording trip to Wiltshire in 2019 about the potential for collaborating on a new handbook – we agreed that there was certainly a need for one.

LM: There certainly was; this new Handbook is 285 pages long, and covers 117 taxa, 15 of which are native, 20 are aliens and 82 are hybrids. When did you start working on it?

RM: At the beginning of 2020.

GK: It has taken between 2020 and 2024 to get the draft manuscript and design together, and the last year has been a series of edits and reviews. When we first started the process there was the decision to be made as to which software to use. We decided that Adobe Indesign would give us the flexibility needed, but having never used this software before, there was a fairly steep learning curve to figure out how it works and how to put the book together.

LM: Could you give us some examples please of the species you cover and what we can expect to find out from the new Handbook about its identification, distribution, ecology and current conservation status?

RM: Except for conservation status, where known all the above are covered in detail, either in the introductory chapters, or in the species accounts.

GK: It is hoped that the details and layout of the new handbook will aid users in finding the key features of all native species, as well as most hybrids, and some alien species too. Rose identification requires consideration of a suite of features, and they should all be checked for identification purposes, especially when hybridisation is such a key aspect of their ecology.

LM: Thank you both for providing us with sample pages showing a selection of the species covered, they are all displayed as illustrations on this blogpost.

You must have visited a lot of locations across Britain and Ireland in the course of your research. Are there any that particularly stand out in your memory?

RM: Visits to rose-rich sites in Sutherland, the Scottish Highlands, coastal dunes in East Lothian, and wooded areas in south and west Worcestershire with an abundance of southern specialities, and along the Welsh borders, where the highlight was the discovery of a second British site for Rosa villosa.

GK: As with Roger, some of my favourite locations have been to the more remote areas of the UK; from visiting sites for the personally less often encountered northern species, in Scotland, Wales and northern England, to seeing the unusual population of Rosa villosa in its fairly remote setting in Shropshire. A trip to Ireland was also very interesting and informative, and included seeing the hybrid Rosa spinosissima × rugosa found by Paul and Ian Green a number of years ago, and it is still persisting at its original locality (or was in 2022).

LM: Did you get a lot of feedback from BSBI Vice-County Recorders and many of our “ordinary members” who go out plant recording? Is there anyone in particular whose help you would like to acknowledge?

RM: Help and support were given when visiting some vice-counties, in particular Geoffrey Kitchener in Kent (2015), Martin Rand in Hampshire (2016) and Ken Adams in Essex (2021), and especially the help given by Chris Preston during the preparation of the handbook for reading the complete manuscript, pointing out many typos etc. and for his many helpful suggestions regarding changes and modifications to the text.

GK: In addition to RM’s reply, a trip to Ireland in 2022 was greatly assisted by Declan Doogue, who showed me around a number of interesting rose sites. David Morris in Oxfordshire provided an interesting day at The Warburg BBOWT reserve, in 2023, where we recorded a good number of taxa.  Alien rose material was enhanced by assistance from the National Trust with access to their Mottisfont Rose Garden, and by a private rose nursery run by Joan Taylor in Hampshire.  And for myself, a number of local botanists and friends in the Hampshire Flora Group, particularly under the leadership of the BSBI’s Martin Rand and Tony Mundell over the years. Finally, although not BSBI members, I should really also thank my fiancée Nicola, and step daughter Hannah, for their patience in waiting around whilst I photographed many roses on family outings, and spending far too much spare time on the computer over the last few years!

LM: How about herbaria – did you visit many herbaria to look at specimens? Are herbarium specimens particularly useful when it comes to rose identification?

RM: Herbarium specimens are very important particularly historical ones when assessing the accuracy of old records. Most of the important herbaria were examined over a long period by Tony Primavesi and RM. The collection and pressing of specimens is covered in the introductory chapters of the handbook.

GK: The herbarium work was undertaken by RM.

LM: Now to the illustrations: they are always an important part of any BSBI Handbook – so, what can we expect here – photographs, such as the ones which illustrate this blogpost? Are there also line drawings? Diagrams? Distribution maps?

RM: All the illustrations are photographs, there are no line drawings. Most of the species accounts include a distribution map.

GK: Photography has been used extensively, but it has involved a process of carefully ‘cutting out’ images of samples photographed on pale backgrounds in Photoshop to produce a more standard looking field guide species plate, highlighting the key features of each species. Traditional style photos of bushes in situ have also been used for the main native species. The majority of photographs are from either myself or Roger, but there are a small number of additional photos used by other photographers in the book; they have been acknowledged within, and we are grateful for the use of their material.

LM: All BSBI Handbook authors benefit from editorial support to help them through the process towards publication. Who was your editor, was it Liz Kungu?

RM: Yes, Liz Kungu, with help from David Pearman and Chris Preston.

GK: We also had a chapter review from Arthur Chater, and valuable pointers and advice on use of the software by John Norton. We are both grateful for all the editorial support.

LM: Finally, once people have a copy of this Handbook they will be keen to get out and use it in the field on some actual roses! Are there any workshops in the pipeline, where botanists can learn more before they go on (next year) to test the Handbook in the field?

RM: Scottish workshop in East Lothian in September just completed. No further workshops planned at the moment.

GK: As mentioned by RM, we have undertaken a workshop with around 20 of the Scottish BSBI Vice-County Recorders, organised by BSBI Scotland Officer Matt Harding. It was a good day, at an interesting rose site in the East Lothian sand dunes, with a lot of rose identification ground covered.

LM: Thank you both for talking to us about the new Handbook, the 26th in BSBI’s series of Handbooks for difficult plant groups. Wild Roses of Great Britain and Ireland has been a long time coming but it looks as though it will be well worth the wait – many thanks to you and to your editors and contributors for all your hard work, and thank you both for talking to me today.

Now, readers will want to know how to get hold of a copy of the new BSBI Handbook.

If you are a BSBI member, there are details here and in the Autumn issue of BSBI News telling you how you can benefit from our exclusive offer and save £9 compared to the RRP of £25. You can order your copy by post or else online, by clicking here to land on the members-only area of the BSBI website: you'll need to have your password to hand – email us if you’ve forgotten it – and don’t forget to include your membership number.

If you are not a BSBI member, you have two options: from 24th November, you will be able to buy the book from Summerfield Books and other natural history book-sellers, but why not join BSBI right now and start enjoying all the benefits of membership, including this special offer? Take a look at our Join Us page which lists all the benefits of BSBI membership and there's a secure payment option, making it very quick and easy for you to become a BSBI member and start getting involved.  

Working towards building a more diverse and inclusive community of BSBI botanists

Joni Cook at Dimminsdale LNR,
Leicestershire
Image courtesy of J. Cook

BSBI’s Strategy 2024-27 includes the goal of inspiring, building and supporting a diverse community of botanists to sustain and develop the skill base. To reach that goal, we knew that we had to find even more ways of engaging a broader community by identifying – and then working to reduce - any barriers to participation.

This is why BSBI set up an Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Working Group in 2024 to brainstorm ideas that would help us make botany more accessible for everyone, and then come up with a statement and an action plan that we could take forwards. Joni Cook, Secretary of our Events & Communications Committee and a key member of the EDI Working Group, has offered an update on progress so far.

Over to Joni:

“It was fantastic to see the launch of the BSBI Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Statement in March 2025 - what really excites me about this development, and bolsters my hope in these troubled times, can be emphasised by Maya Angelou’s powerful words “In diversity there is beauty and there is strength”. With nature in the UK in crisis - known ranges of 53% of native plants have declined since the 1950s - driven by the rising impacts of climate breakdown amongst other drivers and society grappling with the consequences of these interconnected challenges including sharply rising inequality amongst a dramatically shifting political climate exacerbated by a cost-of-living crisis and the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic which are negatively impacting marginalised groups the most, there has never been greater urgency to drive progress towards making botany accessible for everyone.

"The BSBI EDI Statement sets out the Society’s commitment to actively championing EDI across all activities - striving to make botany accessible to everyone, continuously learning, adapting, and being accountable for progress. By working collaboratively to uphold this statement through actively embedding EDI in everything that we do and accelerate a just and equitable transition towards making botany accessible for everyone, we will not only bolster the BSBI’s resilience and success, but also build a more inclusive, diverse botanical community which empowers underrepresented groups, elevates marginalised voices and drives collective action for the UK’s wild plants.

"Building appreciation for plants, highlighted as a key action in the results of the BSBI Plant Atlas, is a critical part of the solution to accelerate this transition and drive progress in conserving, restoring and enriching the UK’s flora. Reducing ‘plant awareness disparity’ (PAD), a difficulty in recognising and appreciating wild plants, will help people to reconnect with nature which nurtures nature guardianship and is a particularly pressing issue in the UK – where adults are amongst the least connected to nature worldwide, ranking 59th out of 65 national groups surveyed.

Recording the urban flora during 
New Year Plant Hunt 2024
Image: L. Marsh

"Results also highlighted the inequalities in connectedness to nature across different social groups. For example, people with less financial security, lower level of education, living in an urban location or who are not of a racial majority in a particular country experienced a lesser connection with nature. These findings highlight the importance of championing an equitable approach to reducing barriers to botany access for those who at present are the most disconnected from nature. With plant-based citizen science initiatives shown to have high potential to boost interest in and engagement with wild plants, the BSBI’s New Year Plant Hunt, with its wide geographical reach and continual success - the 2025 Plant Hunt engaged over 3000 participants across Britain and Ireland including via numerous group hunts in urban locations, is just one example of the BSBI’s diverse range of initiatives which offers immense opportunity for widening participation and acting as a gateway for empowering underrepresented groups to set out on personal botanical journeys.

"In light of the immense disparity in access to nature in the UK, accelerating progress towards making botany accessible for everyone will contribute towards improving the health and well-being of those who are most in need. Nearly one in five people struggle to access green space in the UK, for example ethnically diverse communities, people living on low incomes and people living in northern regions are more likely to living in places without access to green space, and more likely to suffer poorer health outcomes. The UK is in the midst of a mental health crisis – in 2024, more than 1 in 7 UK adults say their mental health is currently either bad, or the worst it’s ever been, which has intensified since the Covid-19 pandemic. Furthermore, inequalities in mental health are prevalent – the greatest increase in poor mental health has been seen in people of younger ages (16-34 years). Spending time with plants can, it has been demonstrated, boost mental health and well-being – looking at a flower for just six seconds has been shown to lower blood pressure and stress levels, and indeed spending time in nature, even just 15 minutes, can reduce stress, and improve cardiovascular health and mood.

Joni recording the urban flora
with the Leicester Botany Group
Image: L. Marsh

"There is tremendous potential to reduce these inequalities in access to nature and associated health impacts through actively engaging underrepresented groups with plants through BSBI initiatives and activities. The network of BSBI local groups in Britain and Ireland, predominantly based in cities and major towns, offers immense opportunity to expand engagement with urban communities through group botany events which are free of charge and held within easy reach by public transport or active travel. There is also opportunity to expand on the BSBI’s recent increased engagement with people of younger ages. Sarah Woods, BSBI Fundraising & Engagement Manager, noted how wonderful it was to have so many more younger botanists participating in the BSBI British & Irish Botanical Conference 2024 compared with previous years. Engagement is also being boosted through diversification of the BSBI’s social media presence, where BSBI Events & Communications Committee member Lindsay-Anne Heald is doing superb work in building a strong presence on TikTok, helping botany to reach younger audiences and to ensure continuity of botanical expertise across generations. With the Department of Education recently announcing plans for the introduction of a GCSE in Natural History, there is future potential to collaborate with participating institutions to introduce botany to young people. One key initiative of the BSBI’s EDI Working Group, which is being implemented in 2025, is a greater emphasis on collecting feedback from event participants. This includes an option for attendees to share their EDI data, which will enable BSBI to establish a baseline upon which evidence-based, measurable progress and ongoing monitoring of EDI goals can be made.      

"At a fundamental level, access to botany and as a result, increased botanical literacy, is empowering, opening up opportunities such as employment, further education and volunteering. For example, progression to Level 4 (‘Good ID skills’) on the BSBI Botanical Skills ladder enables the undertaking of National Vegetation Classification (NVC) surveys as part of consultancy work, teaching of vocational courses, or becoming an Identiplant tutor. Empowerment of underrepresented groups in botany is particularly important considering the urgent broader needs for addressing stark inequalities in post-compulsory STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) education, particularly in terms of socio-economic background, gender and ethnicity, and in the environmental sector which is the second least diverse of all sectors in the UK, for example with just 4.81% identifying as Black, Asian or from other minority ethnic groups, compared to 12.64% across all UK sectors. There is huge potential to build on taking a targeted, equitable and inclusive approach to opening up opportunities for underrepresented groups through BSBI activities. A recent example is the provision of Welsh translations for two BSBI publications, thanks to the Welsh Government's RhydweighartNatur Programme, provided by the Heritage Fund, which is boosting opportunities for Welsh communities, particularly those situated in rural areas, to engage with botany. It is not only people who will benefit from making botany accessible for everyone, but the BSBI too – organisations that take a bold approach to embracing EDI are more likely to be successful and resilient – for example, making use of the passion, talents, skills sets and perspectives that diverse communities provide can boost creativity, enhance innovation and reduce risk.

Joni enjoying the canalside flora at
Aylestone Meadows Nature Reserve, Leicester
Image: L. Marsh

"I would like to propose that advancing progress towards EDI goals should not be siloed in the BSBI community or even in botany as a scientific discipline, but to consider instead approaching our EDI journey as part of broader transitions within the environmental sector and indeed as part of a collective drive towards forging an inclusive and just society. In this respect, the importance of making and maintaining strong collaborations with a diverse range of organisations and actors, and the resultant cooperative exchange of knowledge, skills and experiences, cannot be over emphasised. For example, for the Modern Energy Cooking Services (MECS) programme (where I work as part of the UK-based core team), the ‘leave no-one behind’ agenda is of central importance to programme activities and aim of accelerating access to clean, electric cooking, and transdisciplinary and global collaborations with a wide range of partners, such as communities, NGOs, governments, private sector, academia and research institutes, and policy representatives across 16 countries of interest are key to driving action on the ground towards achieving this. It is wonderful therefore to see a collaborative approach in the environmental sector being championed through the recent launch of a joint statement ‘Nature for all: diversity makes us stronger’ by the UK Terrestrial Evidence Partnership of Partnerships (UKTEPoP) initiative, of which the BSBI is one of the 10 partners, pledging commitment to diversity, equity & inclusion in UK species monitoring schemes. The UKTEPoP initiative is just one example of a variety of collaborations in which BSBI is engaging in order to drive EDI progress in the environmental sector, other examples include as a signatory of The RACE Report and (from 2025) contributing data to monitor racial diversity within the sector as well as monitoring the BSBI’s progress, and working with partners to engage with diverse communities in botany projects, and learning from this work, for example the Eco-Museum of Scottish Mining Landscapes Project.

"By working together to champion equity, diversity and inclusion by embedding in all our activities – identifying and breaking down barriers to participation, empowering people from all backgrounds with botanical skills and knowledge, amplifying and celebrating underrepresented voices, building an inclusive and vibrant botanical community and accelerating progress towards the goal of access to botany for everyone – we will deliver multiple cascading benefits for the UK’s threatened plants, the BSBI, all of us – the BSBI community, and indeed contribute to progress towards achieving a kind, compassionate, socially just and nature-centric wider society”.

BSBI membership: save money with our autumn special offer

For the last three years, we have launched our autumn membership special offer by saying that 'in a rapidly changing world, our wild plants have never been more in need of the support, understanding and appreciation that BSBI is uniquely placed to provide'. 

We'd love to be able to report that we've reached our strategic goal of 'a world where wild plants thrive and are valued and understood' but sadly, we are not there yet. Our Plant Atlas 2020 analyses and summary reports flagged how British and Irish wild flowers, and the many other species of wildlife who depend on them, are increasingly threatened. The evidence continues to build about how our climate is changing: thousands of you went out recording for the 2025 New Year Plant Hunt and found a total of 647 different species across Britain and Ireland managing to flower in deepest midwinter. It's wonderful to have those plant records - huge thanks to everyone who took part! - but the underlying message of plants and other wildlife going increasingly 'out of sync' as the world warms is deeply worrying. So, what can we do? 

Well, we can continue to build and support our friendly and  welcoming botanical community and keep on collecting the vital evidence about how our wild plant distributions are changing. Policy-makers rely on the robust data which are collected by BSBI's fabulous volunteer members and are then analysed and interpreted by our Science Team. That’s why today we are inviting you to join our growing ranks, if you haven't already, and asking our existing members to help us spread the word about the benefits of BSBI membership - for you and for our wonderful wild flowers. 

So, at a time when we are all counting the pennies, why join BSBI? And why now? There are three good reasons!

First of all, if you join BSBI in October, your annual membership starts at once so you could enjoy up to 15 months of membership benefits for the price of 12 months. You wouldn't need to renew your annual subscription until January 2027.

Secondly, we've continued to expand our range of membership benefits in the past year and there are even more in the pipeline:

• Members receive three issues each year of BSBI News, our colourful magazine packed with information about British and Irish wild flowers: visit our sampler page to check out the latest sample issue, and take a look at some of the free articles from recent issues – that will give you an idea of the contents.
• Last year we opened up membership access to the BSBI Distribution Database – with more than 60 million plant records, it’s one of the largest databases of biological records in the world. 
• Earlier this year we launched our new BSBI Recording App so it has never been easier to upload your plant records direct from your phone or computer to the BSBI Distribution Database, ready for verification by our experts. 
• Membership gives you favoured status when applying for BSBI training and plant study grants - if you're thinking of doing a plant ID course, such as BSBI's online Identiplant course or one of the many courses offered by external providers, you can apply for a grant of up to £250 to help you. These grants are also available to non-members but members are prioritised in the award process.
• Membership brings you big discounts on the series of BSBI Handbooks; pre-publication offers for members are usually around a third off. We have published two new Handbooks this year - Brambles of Scotland (£7 membership discount) and Wild Roses of Great Britain and Ireland (£9 membership discount) - and there are more titles in the pipeline.
• Members have exclusive access to almost 100 expert plant referees to help you with identification, to members-only volunteering opportunities and to 100+ scientific papers free to download from the password-protected members' area of our website.
• Membership also brings you big discounts on selected botany books, such as Urban Plants by Trevor Dines (£10 off) and Endemic by James Harding-Morris (£5 off) as well as other ad hoc offers and discounts from our partners.
• Coming soon: we've been working away behind the scenes to create a brand new BSBI website! Our over-riding aim has been to make all our current content even easier for you to access, with pointers and filters depending on your area of interest, your skill level or your accessibility needs. The new website goes live this autumn and we'll be consulting with members to keep improving it and adding even more content. 

Concerned about the environmental impact of your membership? By opting for digital membership and choosing eBooks rather than printed Handbooks, you'll be minimising your carbon footprint.

Wondering if your voice will be heard and your questions answered? Our latest membership survey went live last month and already, more than 1,200 of you have provided feedback about what you like and what we can improve. We're busy analysing that feedback now and will be reporting back to you in the Winter issue of BSBI News. We're also looking ahead to the 2026 online Forum where staff, trustees and membership representatives come together to brainstorm what we offer, how we work together and how we can continue to improve.  

But there's a third, very important, reason for joining the growing ranks of BSBI members - it's not just about all the many practical, social and financial benefits you'll enjoy. You'll also be helping us to support British and Irish wildflowers. 

How? Because while many of our >4,600 members carry out amazing work studying, recording, monitoring and helping to conserve wild plants across Britain and Ireland, feeding into projects such as Plant Atlas 2020, the State of Nature 2023 report, the many county Floras and the National Plant Monitoring Scheme in which BSBI is a partner, many others are simply happy to know that their subscription helps support our work to advance the understanding and appreciation of wild plants and to support their conservation across Britain and Ireland.

Check out our nature conservation policy and our strategic plan to find out more; discover how our botanical heatmaps, developed with Natural England, are helping to ensure that we get the right tree in the right place (and not in the wrong place!); check out the members who won awards in 2024 for outstanding contributions to botany; or leaf through our latest Annual Review to find out what the Society achieved last year thanks to all our wonderful members.

Want to know more about exactly how we spend the subscriptions we receive from members and the funding from external bodies? Our Annual Report and Accounts are always published on this page, while our Ethical Position Statement and our Reserves Policy can be viewed on our Governance page. Want to check that we will always respect your privacy and handle your data with the utmost care? Check out our Privacy Policy and Data Handling Policy.

If you are already a BSBI member, we'd like to say a huge thank you to each and every one of you for all that you do, and ask you to spread the word to friends and colleagues who you think might enjoy becoming a member - and don't forget that a gift membership of BSBI makes a great present for a loved one!

Our ranks are growing - by almost 30% in the last three years - so if you haven't yet joined us, why not head over here and become our next new member? We can't wait to welcome you and send you your membership welcome pack. Together we can keep working towards a world where wild plants across Britain and Ireland thrive and are valued - and so are the thousands of amazing BSBI botanists who support them.

Exploring Britain's endemic plants (and a few other species!)

How many of Britain's endemic plants have you seen, or even heard of? These are the plants which grow only in Britain and nowhere else on Earth.

There's Bertha's Dandelion, recorded by Judy Webb in Oxfordshire during lockdown; and there are quite a few endemic hawkweeds, some of which have been described by Tim Rich in British & Irish Botany.

Or there's York Groundsel, a hybrid plant which evolved in this country, went extinct in the wild but was brought back from extinction thanks to a species recovery programme funded by Natural England.  

How about False-toothed Lady's-mantle? It's known from only one location in the Yorkshire Dales, although BSBI Handbook No. 26 Lady's-mantles of Britain and Ireland by Mark Lynes, devotes eight pages to photographs, measurements and detailed descriptions of this species. If you're ever lucky enough to encounter this species, Mark's book will provide you with all the information you need for a firm identification.

York Groundsel
Image: J. Harding-Morris

But these are only a few of the endemic plants which feature in Endemic, the new book by James Harding-Morris. Naturalist James is BSBI's Vice-County Recorder for North Lincolnshire; he has previously worked for the RSPB and on the Back from the Brink project but these days we are delighted that he is BSBI Countries Manager, promoting botanical recording and supporting the community of botanists across Britain and Ireland. 

One of James's favourite plant conservation stories involves a fellow BSBI Vice-County Recorder, Linda Robinson, who managed to 'save' Baker's Hawkweed from global extinction. 

James is also a big fan of the Scottish Primrose, the Catacol Whitebeam and of course the 'world's unluckiest plant', Interrupted Brome, which has gone extinct not once but twice.

Scottish Primrose
Image: J. Harding-Morris

All these plants and more, plus a selection of endemic invertebrates, the Orkney Vole and the British Earthstar, are featured in Endemic, which is out now, published by Bloomsbury. The book retails at £20, but if you're a BSBI member, you can claim an exclusive 25% discount when you buy your copy. Just visit the members' area of the BSBI website for details. 

Not yet joined the growing ranks of BSBI members? 

Then you have two options: you could hang on until 1st October when our annual membership special offer re-opens. You'd get 15 months of membership for the price of 12 and then on top of that, you'd save another £5 on your copy of Endemic. 

Or if you really can't wait, you could order your copy right now from the Bloomsbury website and start reading about Goldilocks Buttercup, the South Stack Fleawort and the Great Orme Berry. Great names for some of our great plants which grow here in Britain and nowhere else on Earth!

British & Irish Botany: issue 7.2 published

Lady's-slipper Orchid
Image courtesy of
Rob Still & Chris Gibson
https://plantatlas2020.org/atlas
/2cd4p9h.xh1

We've just published the latest issue of British & Irish Botany, the online, Open Access scientific journal of the Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland (BSBI). This new issue contains seven papers which we think will be of interest to botanists across Britain and Ireland and - very much so, regarding one of the papers! - also to readers further afield.

In addition to original research articles, British & Irish Botany also welcomes forum articles—short pieces that express a view on a particular topic, intended to stimulate debate and advance ideas. The first article in this issue is a thought-provoking opinion piece by Dave Trudgill on the reintroduction programmes for the Lady's-slipper Orchid (Cypripedium calceolus) which examines the successes and challenges of the scheme and raises important questions about its long-term sustainability. We are aware that this is a sensitive and potentially contentious topic, and we expect to publish a response presenting an alternative perspective in the next issue.

Our second paper is about the first records from Britain and Ireland of a new hybrid comfrey, Symphytum x ferrariense, the hybrid between Common Comfrey (S. officinale) and White Comfrey (S. orientale). Bob Leaney et al. report on newly-discovered populations in Cambridgeshire, Cheshire and Norfolk. Bob is well-known to many readers, both via his previous publications on comfreys and also his many helpful plant ID resources, a selection of which can be found on our Plant Identification for experienced botanists page. 

Symphytum x ferrariense
Image: Bob Leaney

Then we have a paper about drift seeds washed up on our shores. Dan Minchin et al. report on achenes of sea-grapes (Coccoloba spp.) recorded in Co. Sligo and Co. Cork -these are believed to be the first such records on European shores. Sea-grapes occur on American Atlantic coasts, from Bermuda to Argentina, so these achenes are presumed to have crossed the Atlantic Ocean.

Next up is a paper by Chris Skilbeck and Michael Wilcox investigating variation in British restharrows (Ononis spp.). Using morphological observations and flow cytometry, they examined intermediates between tetraploid Common Restharrow (O. repens) and diploid Spiny Restharrow (O. spinosa). Contrary to expectations that such intermediates would be triploid, they found all to be diploid - suggesting these plants may represent a form of O. spinosa or a hybrid derivative that has undergone diploidisation.

Ononis repens
Image: C. Skilbeck

This paper is particularly poignant as Chris Skilbeck (1970-2025) passed away unexpectedly just a week before publication. Chris was a Scientific Associate at the Natural History Museum, London, where he worked on taxonomic problems in the British flora and contributed significantly to their herbarium collections. He was also an active member of the BSBI and a regular contributor to British & Irish Botany, producing articles on achene dispersal in the Asteraceae, on achene morphology of British and Irish Mayweeds and Chamomiles and on intermediates between Sea and Scentless Mayweed in Orkney. Chris will be greatly missed by all who knew him, and our thoughts are with his family at this very sad time.

We then have a summary of the current state of the montane and submontane plants of the Moffat Hills in Dumfriesshire by Chris Miles, BSBI's Vice-County Recorder. Chris has been surveying the Hills in an attempt to refind the 63 plant species recorded there by Derek Ratcliffe in 1958 and determine their current distribution, and we can now hear the results of his hunts. 

Next up, we have a paper by Tim Rich et al. describing three new endemic species of British hawkweed. Tim is one of our most prolific contributors. In our last issue, we published a paper by Tim and Libby Houston in which they make a number of new combinations in Sorbus ahead of the publication of their highly anticipated second edition of BSBI Handbook no. 14: Whitebeams, Rowans and Service Trees. The new Handbook will also include other members of the Rose family (Rosaceae) so to complete this issue, we are pleased to publish a paper by Mike Fay et al. with eight new combinations in pears (Pyrus spp.) and a new combination for a species of Cotoneaster naturalised in Kent. We'll be telling you more about the forthcoming Handbook as soon as it nears publication and as always, there will be a hefty discount for BSBI members buying a copy. 

We hope that you will enjoy the latest issue of our journal and as always we would encourage you to get in touch with us (Stuart and Louise) if you have research you'd like to publish about the British and Irish flora. Either email us for an informal chat or bite the bullet, check these submission guidelines and send us your contribution. We look forward to hearing from you! 

Interview with Dr Brenda Harold, who created Identiplant

Brenda (on left) & Dr Chantal Helm, 
BSBI Training Coordinator, at the 2024
British & Irish Botanical Conference 

Today’s interview is with Dr Brenda Harold, who created Identiplant, the very popular online plant identification course. Brenda has been a BSBI member for 57 years, served on BSBI Council from 2007 to 2011 and on our Training Committee from 2008 to 2017. Brenda’s achievements were acknowledged with a special presentation at the 2024 British & Irish Botanical Conference and I caught up with her recently on a Zoom call to find out more about how she first got interested in botany and how she went on to create Identiplant.

LM: Hi Brenda, can you please share how your passion for botany began?

BH: I was born with a fascination for plants although I grew up in London with no access at all to the countryside and not knowing anyone interested in wildlife. I wanted to be a scientist but didn’t consider biology until I had to choose my A-level subjects, when I asked for chemistry, physics, pure maths and botany. The school was unable to timetable that, but said that I could swap botany for zoology. That was the moment when I realised that botany was my greatest interest and I changed to botany, zoology, chemistry and physics.

Brenda aged 15 months and
already showing an interest
in plants!

After school I got a place at UCL (1961-64), and did the most brilliant, brilliant botany degree course. I learnt absolutely everything about plants, including microbiology and plenty of genetics. And from there I just wanted to take botany as far as I could so I stayed on as a PhD student with the project title: “Cytogenetic Studies in the Genus Potentilla”.

LM: And of course, you went on to join the BSBI and in 1969 you were invited to become our expert Referee for Potentilla (a photo of Brenda's Referee invitation letter, signed pp the legendary Frank Perring, can be seen below right). 

BH: I became a referee so early because of the publication of my PhD. I had been immersed in Potentilla spp. (cinquefoils) for three years and by then I could spot one from a mile off. Having made my own Potentilla hybrids, I knew which species would and wouldn’t cross and how their chromosomes paired, aiding greatly in my identification abilities. It was also during this time that my PhD supervisor, Jack Ellis, suggested that I joined BSBI, which is why I’ve been a member for so long! 

A highlight of my research actually happened two years after my PhD, when I managed to recreate Potentilla anglica, confirming that the species is an allopolyploid. I took over the referee position in 1970, and on average I received half a dozen identification requests each year. Once or twice, I received a large bundle of pressings from someone sorting through an herbarium collection, and I had to cover the whole floor to sort through them!  As part of my role, in 2021 I also produced two Potentilla training webinars (supported by the National Parks and Wildlife Service): part one  and part two are still available to watch on YouTube.

LM: How did you get into teaching after university?

BH: Growing up I was certain that I didn’t want to become a teacher so I didn’t take a teaching certificate. However, when I finished my studentship in 1967, a vacancy arose at Westfield College for someone to teach genetics and botany and I was invited to apply. This was an offer that I couldn’t refuse. My first lecture at Westfield was teaching genetics to 70 first year biology students, and I was absolutely terrified. But by the end of that lecture, I knew that I wanted to teach. I discovered that I had an ability to explain things well, and that all that mattered was the subject and the students, not how I spoke or what I looked like. I realised what a privilege it is to be able to pass on such interesting material to others. By the end of term, my real ambition was to become a senior tutor, and to move away from research.

LM: What did you do after you left Westfield College?

BH: I left Westfield after five years in 1972 and didn’t return to full-time work until my second daughter started school. During this period I did however do loads of part-time work, including working as a genetics tutor for the Open University and then at Brunel University. During one of Brunel University’s cutbacks, I was told that the university couldn’t afford to have any more part-timers, but there was a full-time botany position available. Just like the position at Westfield, it was the most incredible good luck, as I was able to return to full-time work just as my daughter started school. Ensuring excellent teaching quality was my main focus and, for example, I introduced student feedback questionnaires after modules. I undertook a number of positions within the Biology Department at Brunel, including Director of Studies, Senior Tutor, and finally Deputy Head of the Department. I also became Chair of the University Senior Tutors Committee.

LM: When did you start to become serious about field botany?

BH: Despite committing my career to botany and plant genetics, I still lacked decent field skills. It was only in 1990, when my two girls were becoming independent that I had time to develop my interest. I began by creating a large photo library, which was the only way I could remember all of the names. I first decided that I would not take any photos of orchids as beautiful photos of them are two-a-penny! Instead, I focused on common British “weeds” such as Chickweed Stellaria media and Daisy Bellis perennis.

LM: Two lovely species – if they were as rare as orchids, I think we’d all be knocking ourselves out about them! But which ID books were you using at the time?

BH: I was using Fitter, Fitter and Blamey’s Wild Flowers of Britain and Northern Europe, which I always recommended to absolute beginners. I also used the identification keys in New Flora of the British Isles by Clive Stace. Due to my background, almost from the beginning if I found an unknown plant I could eventually work out what it was, and be confident whether I was right.

LM: I gather that even after taking early retirement from the University in 1997, you continued to practice teaching?

BH: Yes, after my retirement, I remained busy. I began by attending field courses at different Field Studies Council (FSC) centres and “graduated” to tutoring them myself. My first FSC course was a Beginner’s Guide to Wildflowers, which Sue Dancey asked me to do. Sue was the Head of the Preston Montford Field Centre and I’ve always had the utmost respect for her. FSC Preston Montford was always such a happy, well-run place, which speaks highly of Sue’s work.

LM: I’m just jumping in here Brenda to say that I couldn’t agree more! Sue’s work at the FSC and alongside Sarah Whild on BSBI Skills & Training Committee was hugely important in advancing and showcasing botanical training across Britain and Ireland, not just in Shropshire! And then what happened at WEA?

BH: In 1998 I also began tutoring for the Workers Educational Association (WEA). These were daytime courses so most of the students were retired people and I was tutoring around 3 different courses per week: 10 or 20 weeks in length or occasionally shorter. By the time I finished in 2010 I had taught more than 60 different courses. My 20-week course, entitled ‘Genes Are Us’, was nominated by my students for a National Institute of Adult Continuing Education (NIACE) award, which I was very proud to receive. That course was terrific fun to teach, and I found great fulfilment in introducing genetics to absolute beginners. As part of the course, I took students to the Wellcome Sanger Institute near Cambridge, and after a number of years the staff there noted that my grey-haired group were more enthusiastic and knowledgeable than the school parties! 

LM: Was it also during this time that you volunteered with the Wildlife Trust?

BH: Yes, after my retirement I also became a volunteer with Herts and Middlesex Wildlife Trust (image above left). For some years I was warden of a very small nature reserve. My role included counting the Shetland sheep (image below right) when they visited the reserve, which was particularly difficult as the sheep tended to lie down under trees and blended into the landscape due to their camouflage colours! I also joined the Trust’s team of volunteer wildlife site surveyors which comprised about 5 experts plus about 10 beginners at various levels. We went out in small groups to existing or potential wildlife sites throughout the county and carried out professional-level surveys including full species lists with indicator species noted, plus site maps and descriptions. These surveys were really important to me as they taught me survey technique, as well as being very enjoyable. 

LM: How did your experience as a volunteer site surveyor with the Wildlife Trust make you realise that there was a need for a new kind of plant ID course?

BH: During the survey sessions I saw that the beginners simply made lists of species’ common names, which were entered on to the county record card by one of the experts at the end of the session. But more than one of the beginners told me that they wanted to improve but didn’t know how to, so I decided to write a course for them. This would have to be a long course since it is not possible to acquire all the essential knowledge and observational experience in a short day or weekend course. However, they were all on email by 2010 so I decided to email the course units to them. In 2011 then, I wrote Identiplant, a course in 15 units starting in February and ending in September, which I emailed to students on alternate Fridays. I had prepared the first few units in advance but soon I was writing a new unit each fortnight.  This was possible because I used all the material from my WEA courses, which had been enjoyed by numerous students, including all of my own photographs, drawings and notes.      

Identiplant began as a small, local course, but in 2012 two friends enabled it to become a national online course: Sue Green, a retired maths teacher, built the website and learning platform, while Sue Dancey persuaded the FSC to take on the financial administration. The BSBI gave us permission to display their logo as well as advertising the course on their website and in 2013 Identiplant was launched as an online course throughout Britain and Ireland. It quickly spread and developed a life of its own, with students from Northern Scotland to Jersey and the Republic of Ireland. Each student has their own online tutor, who is an expert familiar with their own area, and the BSBI also advertised for these. I saw Identiplant as a bridge to take beginners across the difficult divide between learning plant names one by one to proper systematic identification.

British & Irish Botanical Conference 2022:
Ellen Goddard (on right) from
BSBI Skills & Training Committee
enthuses visitors about Identiplant  

LM: So, then you decided to hand the course over to BSBI in 2022 and we appointed Chantal Helm as our Training Coordinator to handle administration. Was it hard to hand over your “baby” or was it a relief?! And of course, you stayed on the Identiplant Management Team to smooth the transition.

BH: I was very happy to pass the reins over to BSBI. Sarah Woods, who helped with the business plan, and Steve Gater, who was a BSBI trustee at the time, were both greatly helpful in lessening the stress of the transfer process. Since its launch in 2013, 2,300 students have enrolled in Identiplant, highlighting its impact in educating aspiring botanists. Many of those after the course, became the plant experts in their area, commonly organising wildflower walks or other botanical activities. But the best reward is seeing how much the students who complete the course enjoy it.

LM: Yes, the feedback we receive from Identiplant alumnae – and the huge number of applicants each year – are evidence of how successful and enjoyable Identiplant is! So, what are your plans now that you’ve stepped back?

Brenda receiving the
Marsh Botany Award 2024

BH: I’ve always got a project! I spend a lot of time in my garden, which can be complicated to manage. I also have ambitions to complete another course which I started writing in 2018. It was never quite finished and has been sitting on my computer ever since. And I’m still an Identiplant tutor.

LM: That sounds exciting – I hope you’ll come back and tell us more once you’ve completed that other course! For now, can I say a big thank you to you for talking to us Brenda, it’s been fascinating to hear the story behind Identiplant which has proved instrumental in training up so many botanists and kickstarting so many careers. We all owe you a huge debt of gratitude! BSBI isn’t the only organisation keen to trumpet Brenda’s achievements: we were delighted to hear that Brenda was awarded the Marsh Botany Award 2024 for her “dedication in teaching and training many cohorts of botanists, ecologists and land managers”. She joins a small but select team of botanists, including Sarah Whild and Clive Stace, who receive this prestigious annual award due to their lifetime achievements and outstanding contributions in the field of botanical research and conservation. Congratulations to Brenda on this very well-deserved award.

Finally, can I say a big thank you here to BSBI Communications volunteer Isabelle McAllister who transcribed the interview with Brenda which was carried out via Zoom? Watch out for future interviews between Isabelle and BSBI staff members.