New Year Plant Hunt 2025: Day Two

James (in green) and NHSN botanists
 ready for their Hunt at St. Peter's today
Image: Matt Williamson

For tonight's round-up of New Year Plant Hunt results across Britain and Ireland, I'm handing over to the fabulous James Common. James is one of BSBI's County Recorders for North Northumberland and works as Senior Naturalist with the Natural History Society of Northumbria (NHSN). His main interest is urban plants and he is currently working on an urban Flora covering Newcastle and North Tyneside. If you attended last year's British & Irish Botanical Conference, you'll have met James: NHSN co-hosted that event, at University of Newcastle, and James' presentation on the urban flora of Newcastle was one of the day's highlights. 

So without further ado, over to James:

"Today marked Day Two of the fourteenth New Year Plant Hunt (NYPH), with botanists from all corners of Britain and Ireland flocking outdoors to find, record, and importantly, enjoy the wide variety of wild and naturalised plants to be found in bloom during winter.

Pale Pink-Sorrel spotted on today's Hunt
Image: James Common

As an enthusiastic follower of BSBI’s New Year Plant Hunt, it has been inspiring to see so many people engaging with the project on social media and even better to peruse the wonderful lists shared from what seems like every corner of Britain and Ireland. From Thurso in Caithness all the way south to Scillies, how fantastic it is to see the NYPH making a difference on a national scale and growing larger with each passing year.

Once again, today there have been some impressive totals shared. Take Helen Dignum and team’s list from coastal Pagham, West Sussex, where 66 species were spotted in bloom including natives such as Sea Samphire and opportunistic neophytes including Corsican Hellebore. As Louise Marsh mentioned yesterday, mild coastal areas tend to yield more species at this time of year - further demonstrated by Dennis Kell’s list from Felixstowe where exotics in bloom included Sicilian Chamomile and Seaside Daisy.

Narrow-leaved ragwort at St. Peter's
with passing botanists
Image: Matt Williamson

Big lists were not restricted to coastal areas, however. Over in County Limerick, Paul Murphy and the Raheem Ramblers notched up an impressive 59 species including White Ramping-fumitory, and in Newcastle, a group from the Natural History Society of Northumbria led by yours truly managed 57 species along the banks of the Tyne. These included surprises such as Black Horehound and Viper’s-bugloss, and new arrivals to the region in Guernsey Fleabane and Narrow-leaved Ragwort. As you’ll see from the group shot (above right), it was great to have local people of all ages, backgrounds and experience levels along for the trip – that’s what the NYPH is all about!

Black Horehound
Image from Plant Atlas 2020
Image: Chris Gibson & Rob Still

Down south in Peterborough (please bear in mind a Geordie is writing this) a list shared by Sarah Lambert demonstrated perfectly the diversity of urban areas with neophytes such as Hare’s-tail, Sweet Alison and Narrow-leaved Ragwort blooming alongside hardy natives in Round-leaved Crane’s-bill and Butcher’s-broom. This and other submissions from towns and cities across the Britain and Ireland contrast starkly with those from rural areas where neophytes can be rather hard to come by. This contrast was noted in the results of in last year’s survey (available here).

Large lists and rare plants are not the aim of the NYPH, equally important is the chance to spend time in nature and connect with the natural world, often in good company. So many examples of this have been shared over on social media that it is difficult to keep track but a couple of things that made me smile when researching for this post included Debbie Alston’s Butcher’s-broom (and super afternoon tea) in Eastbourne, East Sussex and Charlotte Rankin’s fun day out with the team from Cumbria Wildlife Trust (image below left).

Six-year-old botanist Ada getting
 to grips with Winter Heliotrope
Image: Dan Ryan

Dan Ryan also shared some glorious pictures of himself and six-year-old botanist, Ada, enjoying Winter Heliotrope and lots more beside on their local walk. Incidentally, one simply has to compliment Ada on her floral fashion sense. Such is also the case with NYPH stalwart, Moira O’Donnell, too whose botanical boots are sure to bring a smile to your face on a dreary winter’s day.

It is always interesting to keep an eye on the most ‘frequent plants’ observed as part of the survey. Often there are some changes from year to year as different species react to variable weather conditions. Interestingly, so far this year, the top seven plants observed by botanists mirror exactly those from last year. It is only after that that changes become apparent with Yarrow dropping six places to number fourteen on the list. Hazel too has fallen a few places and sightings of Smooth Hawk’s-beard are scarcer this time around – indeed, it has been conspicuously absent from both NYPH walks I have attended here in the North East. I wonder how this will change as more lists are submitted over the coming days?

Staff and volunteers from Cumbria Wildlife Trust
 on their New Year Plant Hunt
- with one of our New Year Plant Hunt
spotter sheets! 
Image: Charlotte Rankin

At the time of writing this, 645 surveys have taken place so far in just two days, revealing 466 species of wild and naturalised plants in bloom this winter and representing no less than 8602 valuable botanical records. Whilst great fun, the survey serves an important role by drawing attention to how our flora is adapting to changing weather patterns. It would be amazing to think that with your help, the fourteenth New Year Plant Hunt could be the biggest yet. You can do it…"

Huge thanks to James for this round-up! James' blog about his wildlife finds in North East England is well worth a read and you can follow his wildlife posts (always illustrated by some great photos) on Twitter and on Bluesky. You can also book now for the Botanical Skills webinar on Cotoneasters which that James is giving for BSBI on 28th January.

Good luck to tomorrow's plant hunters and let's catch up again here tomorrow to check out what they found where!