BSBI Annual Exhibition Meeting 2016: Exhibits to download

Roger Horton and his exhibit.
Image courtesy R. Horton

The first batch of exhibits from the recent BSBI Annual Exhibition Meeting is now available for you to download here.

If you attended and enjoyed the day, this is a chance to get another look at eight of the 38 exhibits displayed at CEH Wallingford on 26th November.

If you weren't able to make it to the AEM this year, at least you'll be able to get an idea of what you missed!

Sadly some of the exhibits can't easily be converted into electronic versions that we can share with you. 

Clive Lovatt, BSBI's Company Secretary and County Recorder for West Gloucestershire, offered a fascinating exhibit: a mid-Victorian example of plant recording using a grid system.

The AEM theme this year was around the "journey of a plant record" from field to map, so it was a delight to see the historic documents Clive had brought along and a photograph (on the left, courtesy of Jerry Clough) of the map with 1 mile grid squares which a group of pioneering Bristol botanists used in the 1860s. But I'm not sure how we'd get all that onto a pdf for you to download! 

We hope to upload Powerpoints of all the talks later this week, but for now you can enjoy exhibits by BSBI members Monica Frisch, George Garnett and Roger Horton, by BSBI Handbook authors Mike Porter, Chris Metherell and Fred Rumsey, and by Kevin Walker and Pete Stroh of the BSBI Science Team.

Alongside all those exhibits by proper botanists, there's also a wee outreach poster from me whose saving grace is four amazing images from BSBI members Dave Steere, Claudia Ferguson-Smyth, Pete Stroh and Mike Robinson. They aren't credited on the poster but I'd like to thank them all very much for allowing their work to be used in BSBI promotional material.

Kew Gardens taxonomy course: student review

Dried Specimen from Greece,
Order Caryophyllales
Image: Ciara Sugrue

Kew Gardens runs a course in Applied Plant Taxonomy, Identification and FieldSurvey Skills. We asked PhD student Ciara, who attended the course earlier this year, to tell us a bit about what she learned. Over to Ciara:

"In September 2016 I was fortunate enough to attend an Applied Plant Taxonomy, Identification and Field Survey Skills Course run by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. I have just started a PhD at Loughborough University, where I will be studying the impacts of climate change and eutrophication on coastal sand dunes. 

This course was therefore a great opportunity for me to develop my plant identification and field skills, which I had previously learnt through volunteering with the BSBI this year.

The course lasted for two weeks and predominantly focused on learning how to identify plants.  We were taught how to recognise the key features of several orders and families using dried and live specimens, in an attempt to get out of our old bad habits, such as assuming a plant’s identity because  “it looks like that!”.  

Living Specimens of the
Family Compositae
Image: Ciara Sugrue 

This course was extremely helpful because we were exposed to both temperate and tropical plant specimens and learnt to identify them using a hand held lens, books and notes that were provided.

Part of the course focused on giving us introductory lectures into plant systematics, nomenclature and taxonomy. I found these lectures particularly interesting because they explained why we classify plants and animals (systematics), the rules and the process of how to name new species (nomenclature), and how names explain the relationship between plants based on botanist opinions (taxonomy). I learnt that these are the key building blocks for helping to group species by characteristics which allow us to identify plants. 

The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew is well known for its large and lavish gardens of tropical and temperate plants, as well as its herbarium containing over 7 million dried plant specimens. However, Kew is also an established scientific institute playing an important role in plant research and conservation. 

We had lectures highlighting Kew's role in international policy work such as the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) and the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and the Nagoya Protocol. CITES helps conserve plants threatened by international trade, and the Nagoya Protocol promotes the fair and equitable sharing of benefits derived from genetic resources and their utilisation. 

Undertaking vegetation surveys
using quadrats in Richmond Park
Image: Ciara Sugrue 

These policies emphasised the importance of legal plant collection. Additionally, we learned about the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List, this provides the extinction risk of species, which can then assist with prioritising conservation efforts. 

An important part of undertaking vegetation surveys is not only learning how to identify plants correctly but also ensuring that the surveys and data recording is completed efficiently. We were taught a variety of skills, including how to survey in different habitats, how to use a GPS navigators and how to preserve specimens in the field. At the end of the two weeks we had a day trip to Richmond Park. It was a great day out where we were able to put into practice the skills we had learnt during the course at Kew".

Many thanks to Ciara for telling us more about this course. Check out the list of courses for botanists on our Training page.

BSBI Annual Exhibition Meeting: Exhibit Number One

Monica's exhibit at the AEM
Image: R. Horton

There were 38 exhibits on display at Saturday's BSBI Annual Exhbibition Meeting and here we present the first. Over to Monica Frisch to tell us about her exhibit:

"I didn't think I had time to put together a display for the AEM this year but then I remembered an idea I'd had for a photoguide to basal rosettes. Some species of plants, such as many of the thistles, have very obvious and often distinctive basal rosettes, but these are rarely illustrated in the field guides. So I thought I should photograph them and perhaps build up a collection showing typical rosettes of common plants. 

"About a week before the AEM I sat down at my computer and started going through my photos of plants. The result was a small display showing basal rosettes of four species of thistle: Stemless Thistle Cirsium  acaule, Woolly Thistle C. eriophorum, Marsh Thistle C. palustre and Spear Thistle C. vulgare. Then I added some notes comparing the last three, and put them out on a table at the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology.

I'd also got a photo of a Dandelion (Taraxacum agg.) and Fox and Cubs (Pilosella aurantiaca) and some notes on other plants with basal rosettes – most of the British species of Plantain, some crucifers, the Primulas – but I didn't have space to display them.

Stemless Thistle aka Picnickers' Nightmare!
Image courtesy of J. Crellin/Floral Images
http://www.floralimages.co.uk/
page.php?taxon=cirsium_acaule,1

My display generated some interest so now I'm thinking about how to take further 'Monica's guide to basal rosettes'. Obviously I need more photos – it was an omission not to include one of the commonest thistles, Creeping Thistle , Cirsium arvense, but I didn't have any photos, and C. vulgare has completely different first year rosettes. 

Perhaps I could see if the Field Studies Council would like to publish a fold-out guide to basal rosettes. But should I limit it to thistles? Or to Asteraceae? But I expect I'll be busy taking more photos and perhaps there'll be a more comprehensive display for next year's AEM. Thanks to everyone who commented on my display and made suggestions".

Many thanks to Monica for telling us about her exhibit - it will be interesting to see how 'Monica's guide to basal rosettes' develops. In the meantime, you can download the pdf here showing images of rosettes of Marsh, Woolly and Spear Thistles, and a table showing how to separate these three species.

BSBI Annual Exhibition Meeting 2016: a roaring success!

Most colourful exhibit at the AEM?
Entries from the BSBI Photographic Competition
Image: R. Clark

On Saturday, almost 200 botanists came together for BSBI's Annual Exhibition Meeting, held this year at CEH Wallingford.

They came from as far afield as Dundee and the Channel Isles, from Surrey and from Armagh, and - oh dear, how do we say this without sounding unbearably smug - the day was a resounding success! 

First, there were 38 botanical exhibits to enjoy, covering many aspects of botany on these islands and featuring herbarium sheets, photographs and items from the BRC archive alongside research posters, news about BSBI projects, training opportunities, activities and publications, and demos of mobile apps for recorders. 

Kate Petty's exhibit on Sea Rocket
Image: K. Petty

We hope to share as many of these exhibits as possible with you in the coming weeks along with some of the stories behind them. 

The huge selection of photographs submitted to the BSBI Photographic Competition looked fabulous and we got to see some live plants on Brian Laney's rare plant stall and in John Poland's Vegetative Plant ID Quiz.  

There was plenty of space for us to mill around the exhibits and lots of comfortable seating areas scattered around, so we could sit and natter about planty things.

Many thanks to Denise and her team at CEH Wallingford (Doug, Jimmy, James, Jarred and Luso) for accommodating 195 botanists and making sure everything was just right for us!  

A full Lecture Theatre as talks get underway
Image: L. Marsh 

Then there were our nine speakers, who informed, entertained and inspired, and whose presentations we will also be uploading here. 

During the morning session 'From Field to Map', we heard from Field Meetings Secretary Jon Shanklin about the plants recorded by BSBI botanists on our field meetings, from BSBI Welsh Officer Polly Spencer-Vellacott on Rare Plant Registers and from President-elect Chris Metherell on BSBI Handbooks which help us record more effectively. 

Jo Judge browsing exhibits
from BSBI's Training Team
Image: S. Townsend

We also enjoyed a talk by Jo Judge, CEO of the National Biodiversity Network, about exciting changes in the pipeline for NBN. Then it was the BSBI's AGM and then of course our thoughts turned to lunch... 

It's a funny thing that although botanists will tolerate a long day in the field with only water and a soggy sandwich, put two BSBI members in a room without a nice cup of tea and a cake and just wait for us to start grumbling!  

So three cheers for Phil and his team who kept us so well fed and watered throughout the day. The hot lunch options were very welcome on a wintry afternoon and the scones with jam and clotted cream have already received two honourable mentions on the feedback forms (along with the usual comments that there was too much on offer and people weren't able to do everything - but we make no apology for this abundance of riches!)

BSBI publications were in the spotlight again after lunch with the award of the Engler Silver Medal to the authors of the Hybrid Flora of the British Isles. 

Sandy Knapp, David Pearman & Chris Preston
Image: L. Marsh

Sandy Knapp presented the award on behalf of IAPT to David Pearman and Chris Preston, and then Chris launched the afternoon session 'Putting Plants on the Map' with a talk about the early days of BSBI and BRC/CEH working together. 

Then Lucy Ridding (CEH) told us about using BSBI data to monitor vegetation changes, Paul Smith talked about surprising plant records and the BSBI botanists who recorded them and Markus Wagner showed us CEH's Rare Arable Flowers App. 

The caption on the slide says it all!
Image: R. Clark

A final chance to look at the exhibits, visit Summerfield Books' pop-up bookshop or catch up with people over coffee and cake, and then back into the lecture theatre where David Roy pulled together the many threads of BSBI and BRC/CEH working together over decades and into the future. 

And then - boo hoo! - it was all over for another year apart from thank yous from BSBI President John Faulkner and the traditional post-AEM social at the local pub.  

A great day catching up with old friends, meeting new ones and finding out what fellow botanists are up to. 

Huge thanks to David Roy, our keynote speaker and also our host: he and his staff did a fabulous job looking after us all day! Equally huge thanks to organisers Jodey Peyton (Ecologist at CEH) and Kylie Jones (Ecologist at Anglian Water) from BSBI's Meetings & Communications Committee - they both put in many volunteer hours to make sure the 2016 AEM was a resounding success.

Ryan and George with their AEM 2016 exhibits
Image: Sarah Whild

And finally, two nice things to report: 

1. More young people attending and exhibiting than at any previous AEM, with a herbarium display by Glenda and her students at Univ Bath, Edge Hill undergrad Josh Styles on ancient woodland indicators (work supported by a BSBI Training Grant), research posters by Lucy Ridding and Charlie Outhwaite at BRC/CEH, George Garnett's poster about the Young Darwin Scholarship and Ryan Clark's 'A Focus on Nature' stand.   

2. During the AGM, it was announced that BSBI membership is on the rise, bucking the national trend for natural history societies. It may be only a 1% rise so far but you know what they say about little acorns... so here's the link if you want to join our growing botanical community!  

BSBI Exhibition Meeting 2016: the countdown

Tim Rich hunting hawkweeds in the Hebrides:
he has a hawkweed exhibit at the AEM.
Image: P. Smith (who's speaking at the AEM!)

This Saturday's BSBI Annual Exhibition Meeting is rapidly approaching and many months of hard work, led by Jodey and Kylie of BSBI's Meetings & Communications Team, are about to pay off and give us one fabulous day for botanists. 

At least that's what we, and 181 people who have already booked, are hoping!

You will have seen the programme of nine speakers, including keynote speaker David Roy, Head of the Biological Records Centre at CEH Wallingford, who are our hosts this year. 

We also look forward to welcoming speaker Jo Judge, CEO of the National Biodiversity Network to tell us about some of the changes we can look forward to at the NBN in the coming months.

Exhibitor Lynne Farrell presenting an award
in her name at the recent NBN Conference
Image: Sue Townsend (AEM co-chair!) 

But the AEM is also about exhibits and we have 38 for you to enjoy this year. 

Some are familiar names like George Garnett, Tim Rich, Lynne Farrell, Oli Pescott, Monica Frisch, Fred Rumsey and John Poland... 

Some are first-time exhibitors and we are mostly keeping them under wraps until Saturday; we'll be uploading as many as possible of the exhibits as pdfs to the AEM webpage next week, so we'll tell you a bit more about each exhibitor as their exhibit becomes available.

John Poland (right) signs a copy of his & Eric's
celebrated Vegetative Key. Catch John's
Vegetative Plant ID Quiz at the AEM
Image: L. Marsh 

One new exhibit I just have to spill the beans about comes from A Focus on Nature, the network for young nature conservationists and naturalists - they are doing an amazing job and I'm really looking forward to finding out more and sharing it with all of you. 

There will also be a demonstration of something that's an absolute first for BSBI and will (we hope) knock your socks off but I really am sworn to secrecy on that one until Saturday!

Another treat which can be discussed now: at the AEM, we will all see Dr Sandy Knapp presenting the Engler Silver Medal to co-authors of the fabulous Hybrid Flora of the British Isles. 

Chris Preston at the 2014 launch of the
England Red List at Kew Gardens
Image: L. Marsh (also exhibiting at the AEM!)

We're delighted that at least two of the three co-authors will be joining us: David Pearman and also Dr Chris Preston, who will be offering a talk straight after the presentation.

Chris spent over 30 years working as a Botanist at the Biological Records Centre and he has been an active, highly respected and much loved BSBI member for more than forty years, so who better to tell us something of how both organisations started working together in those pioneer days for biological recording. Chris is also offering an exhibit on the same theme for which he has raided the BRC/CEH archives, but he won't tell us any more than that!

And then David Roy will bring things bang up to date with his keynote on how we are continuing to develop and build on that very successful partnership between BSBI and BRC/CEH in the 21st century - and some of our exhibits will show the results of that partnership so far.

It should be a great day! If you can't make it to CEH Wallingford on Saturday, you can follow the action via our Facebook account and via our Twitter account using the hashtag #BSBIExhibitionMeeting  - and watch this space for updates.  

BioLinks: what do botanists think?

Have you heard about BioLinks, a new project from the Field Studies Council? Keiron Brown tells us more about it below and asks for feedback from botanists. Over to Keiron:

"This year the Field Studies Council (FSC) has been developing a new biological recording training project to follow on from the work undertaken in previous projects such as Biodiversity Fellows and Tomorrow’s Biodiversity. BioLinks is funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund and hopes to develop invertebrate identification skills within the biological recording community.

In addition, the project will also look to build tools to benefit the wider biological recording community, including botanists. Plans include:

• Developing online guidance for biological recorders of all taxa to help simplify some of the tricky aspects of recording, such as data flow and gaining permissions from land owners.
• Creation of an online Field Notes database that allows naturalists to record ecological observations, such as behaviours and species associations.
• Production of an online Biodiversity Training Signpost tool that will allow recording schemes to promote their training events and provide a ‘one stop shop’ for naturalists to find training courses.
• Field recorder days, good old-fashioned field trips where recorders can enjoy and identify all kinds of wildlife together.
• Regional recorder conferences that bring together recorders to share their finds and feedback on the outputs of the records that they have collated. 

As part of the development for this project we have tried to listen to what the recorders want, and as a result we’ve surveyed hundreds of biological recorders. The data collated from this survey will be shared publicly with other biodiversity organisations, groups and schemes so that others can use this information to support funding applications for biological recording and biodiversity training projects.

And now we need help from the botanists! Our online survey takes around 15 minutes to complete and asks questions about biological recording and how you think the BioLinks project can help strengthen the biological recording community. So far, the survey has been filled in largely by invertebrate recorders and we want to make sure the views of botanists are represented within our survey.

The online survey is open to anyone and can be filled in here."

Many thanks to Keiron for telling us more about BioLinks.

BSBI Training Grants help botanists in 2016: Part Two

Common Bent Agrostis capillaris
Image courtesy of Floral Images
http://www.floralimages.co.uk/page.
php?taxon=agrostis_capillaris,1

Following on from this recent post by Debs about how a BSBI Training Grant helped her attend an ID course, we now have another post from one of this year's Training Grant recipients. 

Over to Colin to tell us more: 

"As a marine biologist the terrestrial world was never a focus of my academic background. However, since the arrival of my first daughter and the realisation that walks would have to slow down to approximately 1 mph (if lucky) I began to take in my surroundings more, especially those things that didn’t move despite the noise! 

"I began to study trees and then moved on to flowers once I had bought ‘Rose’. I had previously avoided grasses but decided to take the plunge on a grass, rush and sedge course with the Field Studies Council. 

"The course was absolutely fit for purpose as it encouraged the students to use the literature and not be daunted by the difficulties of grass ID. 

Annual meadow-grass Poa annua
Image courtesy of Floral Images
http://www.floralimages.co.uk/page.
php?taxon=poa_annua,1

"The lecturer was incredibly enthusiastic, able to impart his knowledge but also very aware of the need for students to walk away with confidence that they could at least separate out key groups and families. 

"Best of all I was surrounded by people who also liked to look at plants without pulling leaves off and uprooting things willy nilly!"

Many thanks to Colin for telling us about the course he was able to attend. 

Watch out for more blogposts coming up by this year's Training Grant recipients and don't forget that you can find out more about training courses, grants and all things related to learning more about botany here.