BSBI New Year Plant Hunt 2016: how to get involved.

Seen in flower at Glengariff Woods,
Co. Cork, Republic of Ireland
New Year Plant Hunt 2015
Image: C. Heardman

New Year Plant Hunt Co-ordinator Ryan Clark is delighted to announce the details of this year's Plant Hunt and how you can get involved. 

For the fifth year running you are cordially invited to join in our BSBI New Year Plant Hunt. The aim is to record as many wild species flowering as you can in up to three hours over the New Year period.

The rules are simple to try to keep data comparable between different areas and over different years:

1. Pick one day over the New Year weekend between Friday 1st and Monday 4th January 2016, when the weather is decent enough to record in.

Gorse & Sea Campion flowering on Anglesey
 during the New Year Plant Hunt 2015
Image: I. Rees

2. Record wild and naturalised plants (but not planted or garden species) in flower. Please check plants are actually flowering – that catkins are open, that grasses have open florets, stigmas or anthers on show etc.


3. Record for up to 3 hours (you can “stop the clock” for tea-breaks and comfort stops!)

4. Send us details of what you saw with photos if possible please: tell us which species you recorded (we can help with identification if you are stuck!), what your name is, and where and when you saw the plants in flower. You can:

• email a list to Ryan and Louise at nyplanthunt@bsbi.org
• post your finds on the BSBI Facebook page 
• tweet them to us at @BSBIbotany using the hashtag #NewYearPlantHunt 

Frosted nosegay from Leics., where
bad weather halved our 2014 total
Image: J. Clough 

You can contribute as many different lists as you like from different areas as long as you don’t exceed the 3 hour limit for each new list. 

If you'd like to find out more about last year’s New Year Plant Hunt, check out the presentation Ryan gave at this year's BSBI Exhibition Meeting here and the two NYPH posters we exhibited. 

You can also read some of the posts from last year's New Year Plant Hunt like this one and this one, see some of the media coverage we achieved last year here and check out the 2015 results here.

Ryan and I look forward to hearing from you on 1st January.