New Year Plant Hunt: analysed and in the media

Plant-hunters at Glengarriff NR in West Cork,
and some of the wildflowers they spotted
in bloom on New Year's Day 2019
Image: C. Heardman

The analysis of BSBI's eighth New Year Plant Hunt has now been published and is available to download here. 

The 627 species you spotted across Britain and Ireland were analysed by Kevin Walker, BSBI's Head of Science, and here are some of his key findings:

• 52% of the plants you spotted were natives and 48% were aliens.
• 58% were 'autumn stragglers', 24% were early spring flowers and 19% were either typical mid-winter flowering plants, all-year-rounders or species which cannot easily be classified as either early or late.
• The 'Top Five' were daisy, groundsel, dandelion, annual meadow-grass and chickweed.
• 1,471 of you went out recording, an increase of c50% on last year.

Gorse blooming in Edinburgh during the 2019 Hunt
Image: G. Routledge

You can view all the records here and click on a list to see what was recorded in your local area.

Media coverage so far of the New Year Plant Hunt includes an interview on BBC Radio 4 Today's programme, which you can catch up with here (starts 1 hour 43 minutes in); two interviews on regional TV  which are no longer available on catch-up; and an interview on local radio which you can catch up with here (starts 26 minutes in).

We're still talking to print journalists about how they are covering the Hunt, so watch this space!