British & Irish Botany: issue 3 published

Japanese rose on the Sefton coast
Image: P. Smith

Dr Ian Denholm, Editor-in-Chief of British & Irish Botany, and his trusty minion/ Editorial Assistant (that would be me!) have just pressed "Publish" on the third issue of volume 1 of BSBI's open access, on-line scientific journal. 

Here's Ian's summary of what people can expect to find inside this third issue:

"Does Euphorbia hyberna (Irish Spurge) have any native sites in southwest England? Is Juncus balticus (Baltic Rush) overlooked at inland compared to coastal locations? How potent a threat does Rosa rugosa (Japanese Rose) pose to our native sand-dune ecosystems? 

Llangollen whitebeam
Image: T. Rich

"These and other topics are explored in five articles published in the third issue of British & Irish Botany, two of which are headed up by authors from Ireland and thereby reinforce B&IB as the voice for science done throughout the geographical remit of BSBI. 

"We continue to welcome papers on the distribution, composition and taxonomy of the British and Irish flora, and especially encourage anyone ‘sitting’ on data that might inform how environmental change is impacting our flora to write up these results and submit either a short note of a full-blown research paper. We will make this as painless a process as possible!"

Specimen of Irish Spurge, as
illustrated in Dillenius (1732)
Image courtesy of J. Lucey

Ian is quite right about the "painless" bit. While potential authors can certainly use the online submission system if they choose - and most people are choosing that option because the system is so quick and user-friendly - anyone who is less confident using electronic submission systems can just email us a Word doc and we'll do the rest. 

As well as the three papers mentioned above, we are also delighted in this latest issue to publish a paper on the conservation status of Sorbus cuneifolia, the Llangollen whitebeam, by nine botanists including Tim Rich, author of several BSBI Handbooks including the forthcoming Gentians of Britain & Ireland.

We also have a paper by Declan Quigley about first records of Pangium edule drift endocarps washed up on the shores of Britain and Bermuda, and a review of NW European records. 

So what are you waiting for? Head over to the British & Irish Botany website to view all five papers, or download them to read at your leisure. 

Baltic rush habitat along the River Dulnain
Image: A. Amphlett

There's no cost, you don't even need to be a BSBI member and there's no need to register (unless you'd like to receive an alert each time a new issue is published). 

If you're new to British & Irish Botany, you can still view or download issue 1 (published in February) and issue 2 (published in May). 

We hope you enjoy reading the 16 papers published so far this year as much as Ian and I enjoyed bringing them to you!