Botanical recording in the Cairngorms National Park

Field Gentian.
Image courtesy of Floral Images:
http://www.floralimages.co.uk/page.
php?taxon=gentianella_campestris,1

Good to hear from Andy Amphlett, BSBI Recorder for Banffshire (VC94), who has been out again this year recording plants in Cairngorms National Park (CNP). Andy also co-ordinated the recording efforts of more than 40 fellow botanists in the Park this year and between them, they have amassed an amazing total! 

Here is a brief update from Andy, and the map below will give you a better idea of where he and fellow recorders have been recording this year:

“The total number of CNP records now in the BSBI database for this year is 27,175 records, of 777 taxa, in 297 tetrads. This includes 1592 records of 152 taxa in the CNP Rare Plant Register. The map below shows taxa recorded per tetrad in 2015.

“98% of the records have been made at 1km precision or better, and 66% of records are to 100m precision or better.

“A small amount of recording is ongoing, but the main emphasis now is on checking and validating records, and ensuring that any remaining records are submitted in a timely fashion. I envisage writing the report on this year's recording in December”.

I asked Andy if there were any notable records and he mentioned 125 records for Gentianella campestris (Field Gentian) and 56 records for Lycopodium annotinum (Interrupted Clubmoss). He also said that the BSBI recording weekend held in VC92 in August yielded around 1,500 records within the CNP, although this was not part of the CNP-supported project.

Many thanks to Andy for this update and congratulations on the amazing number of plants he and fellow botanists have recorded this year in CNP. We look forward to seeing his report when it’s ready. Now here's the map (click to enlarge):

Tetrad map: botanical recording in the Cairngorms National Park, 2015
Image courtesy of Andy Amphlett