BSBI membership: save money with our autumn special offer

Sea Rocket Cakile maritima in Cornwall
Image: David Steere 

For the last two years, we have launched our autumn membership special offer by saying that 'in a rapidly changing world, our wild plants have never been more in need of the support, understanding and appreciation that BSBI is uniquely placed to provide'. 

You won’t be surprised to hear that we’ve seen even more evidence over the past year about how our climate is changing: thousands of you went out recording for the 2024 New Year Plant Hunt and found a total of 629 different species across Britain and Ireland managing to flower in deepest midwinter. Amazing but also a bit worrying? And our Plant Atlas 2020 analyses and summary reports flagged how British and Irish wild flowers, and the many other species of wildlife who depend on them, are increasingly threatened. 

We have never been more reliant on, and grateful for, the contributions of BSBI's fabulous volunteer members. That’s why today we are inviting you to join our growing ranks, if you haven't already, and asking our existing members to help us spread the word about the benefits of BSBI membership - for you and for our wonderful wild flowers. 

So, at a time when we are all counting the pennies, why join BSBI? And why now? There are three good reasons!

First of all, if you join BSBI in October, your membership starts at once so you could enjoy up to 15 months of membership benefits for the price of 12 months. You wouldn't need to renew your subscription until January 2026.

Secondly, we've expanded our range of membership benefits in the past year and there are even more in the pipeline:

• Members receive three issues each year of BSBI News, our colourful magazine packed with information about British and Irish wild flowers: visit our sampler page to check out the latest sampler, and take a look at some of the free articles from recent issues – that will give you an idea of the contents.
• New for 2024/25: Members can now apply for access to the BSBI Distribution Database – with more than 50 million plant records, it’s one of the largest databases of biological records in the world. As members, you’ll also be able to download our new recording app so you can upload your plant records direct from your phone or computer to the BSBI Database, ready for verification by our experts. 
• Membership gives you favoured status when applying for BSBI training and plant study grants - if you're thinking of doing a plant ID course, such as BSBI's online Identiplant course or one of the many courses offered by external providers, you can apply for a grant of up to £250 to help you. These grants are also available to non-members but members are prioritised in the award process.
• Membership brings you big discounts on the series of BSBI Handbooks; pre-publication offers for members are usually around a third off. There’s a Handbook on Roses due out early in 2025 and there are several other titles in the pipeline.
• Members have exclusive access to almost 100 expert plant referees to help you with identification, to members-only volunteering opportunities and to 100+ scientific papers free to download from the password-protected members' area of our website.
• Membership also brings you big discounts on selected botany books, such as Frustrating Flowers and Puzzling Plants by John Warren and the forthcoming second edition of Harrap’s Wild Flowers, as well as other ad hoc offers and discounts from our partners. 

Concerned about the environmental impact of your membership? By opting for digital membership and choosing eBooks rather than printed Handbooks, you'll be minimising your carbon footprint. 

But there's a third, very important, reason for joining the growing ranks of BSBI members - it's not just about all the many practical and financial benefits you'll enjoy. You'll also be helping us to support British and Irish wildflowers. 

How? Because while many of our >4,300 members carry out amazing work studying, recording, monitoring and helping to conserve wild plants across Britain and Ireland, feeding into projects such as Plant Atlas 2020, the State of Nature 2023 report, the many county Floras and the National Plant Monitoring Scheme in which BSBI is a partner, many others are simply happy to know that their subscription helps support our work to advance the understanding and appreciation of wild plants and to support their conservation across Britain and Ireland.

Check out our nature conservation policy and our strategic plan to find out more; find out how our botanical heatmaps, developed with Natural England, are helping ensure that we get the right tree in the right place (and not in the wrong place!); check out the members who won awards in 2023 for outstanding contributions to botany; or leaf through our latest Annual Review to find out what the Society achieved last year thanks to all our wonderful members.

Want to know more about exactly how we spend the subscriptions we receive from members and the funding from external bodies? Our Annual Report and Accounts are always published on this page, while our Ethical Position Statement and our Reserves Policy can be viewed on our Governance page. Want to check that we will always respect your privacy and handle your data with the utmost care? Check out our Privacy Policy and Data Handling Policy.

Ghost Orchid: feared extinct in UK,
not seen since 2009 until
it was rediscovered in 2024
by BSBI member Richard Bate
Image: R. Bate

If you are already a BSBI member, we'd like to say a huge thank you to each and every one of you for all that you do, and ask you to spread the word to friends and colleagues who you think might enjoy becoming a member - and don't forget that a gift membership of BSBI makes a great present for a loved one!

Our ranks are growing - by almost 30% in the last three years - so if you haven't yet joined us, why not head over here and become our next new member? 

We can't wait to welcome you and send you your membership welcome pack. 

Together we can keep working towards a world where wild plants across Britain and Ireland thrive and are valued - and so are the thousands of amazing BSBI botanists who support them.