A glimpse into another world... 

Claudia, Martin and Sally on the Shiant Islands
Image: L. Marsh

When delegates assemble at the Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh, tomorrow for the SAM (Scottish Annual Meeting), they have some real treats in store. 

There are some great speakers, 29 exhibits, a photographic competition, a herbarium tour, a lunchtime visit to the Scottish Rare Plant Project, Chris Metherell is trialling the Euphrasia keys for his new Handbook, Rod Corner will be telling people about botanising in Greenland...

More details here. 

Claudia and Sally Peacock: recorders in the mist
Image: L. Marsh

But if you can't make it to Edinburgh tomorrow, you can enjoy one SAM treat right now. So if it's been a long week and you really need to be lifted out of the daily grind, try this glimpse into another world.

This is the work of Claudia Ferguson-Smyth,  BSBI member, self-confessed aquatics addict and photographer extraordinaire. 

You can see her work on the cover of New Journal of Botany and the image at the head of this Blog is also by Claudia. 

But here are three images of the botanist/photographer herself, out in the field.

Claudia and Martin Robinson collecting Rubus for ID
Image: L. Marsh

In the Hebrides this summer, we soon got used to Claudia, over breakfast, brandishing an OS map and saying "There's a lochan I might take a look at..."

And now Claudia has made it possible for us all to take a look. So go on, click on the link and take a virtual swim around a Hebridean lochan with Potamogeton epihydrus. Then check its distribution across Britain & Ireland on our distribution database.

This video will be played on a continuous loop at tomorrow's SAM, but here it is on your screens right now. Good, eh?