Botanical find of the year? Probably!

Oonagh, Janice, Hammy & Jan start
exploring the wood
Image: R. Hodd

You may already have seen the star find from the recent Cork Recording Event on the Bulletin Board on the BSBI News page. One of the recording groups, led by Irish botanist/bryologist Rory Hodd of Rough Crew fame, found not only the gametophyte but also the sporophyte of the near-legendary Killarney Fern. The location of their find is being kept top secret, for reasons that are explained in this account by Rory: 

"Killarney fern (Trichomanes speciosum) has always had a mythical status amongst Irish and British botanists, being a member of a mainly tropical genus restricted to a small handful of humid sites mainly in the southwest of Ireland and Britain, as well as having a sad history of over-collecting by Victorian botanists, thanks to its delicate ethereal beauty. 

Sprorophyte of Killarney Fern
Image: R. Hodd

"Indeed, it is so rare and threatened in Europe as a whole that it is strictly protected under EU law and details of the location of any sites are top secret and preciously guarded. As the name suggests, its classical location is in the Killarney area of Kerry, where it was once abundant, but the Victorian fern craze led to its demise in all but the most inaccessible locations, with reports of the time speaking of locals selling the fern by the wheel-barrowful. 

"Like all ferns, Killarney fern has independent gametophyte and sporophyte generations, although the gametophyte generation, which grows as a green velvet mat in dark humid caves and under boulders, often a long distance from the nearest sporophyte colony, was not recognised until 1991. Since then, this generation has been found to be relatively widespread and abundant in places, but still rare in the scheme of things, although not anywhere near as rare as the showy fronds of the sporophyte generation.

"In this context, discovering a new colony of gametophyte is always nice, but to discover a new sporophyte colony is a very infrequent and exciting event. So, when West Cork based flute-maker and wildlife enthusiast Hammy Hamilton mentioned to me during last week’s Cork Recording Event that he knew of a fantastic wood, previously unvisited by botanists, in a steep valley with a stream running through it, that he felt might be home to Killarney fern, I was immediately intrigued and we decided to take a small group there on the final day of the Recording Event.  

Gametophyte of Killarney Fern
Image: R. Hodd

"A pleasant stroll through an upland valley opened up a vista of a rocky undulating hillside clothed in native trees, and we plunged down through dense Molinia tussocks, covering deep rocky holes, to enter lush woodland alongside a small tumbling stream. 

"An abundance of Kidney Saxifrage (Saxifraga hirsuta) and the common (in these parts) St. Patrick’s Cabbage (S. spathularis) as well as the hybrid between them (S. x polita) indicated the constant moist humid shady conditions present. Upon spying the steep sided rocky cleft from which the stream issued forth, my instincts told me that Killarney fern must be present, at least in its gametophyte form.

Tunbridge filmy-fern
Image: R. Hodd

"We scrambled into the ravine, and soon spotted a small cave formed by a boulder beside the stream. I poked my head under the boulder and turned on my head torch to confirm what I already guessed, the walls were covered by a luxuriant glowing fuzz of Killarney fern gametophyte. Already satisfied, we continued to follow the stream upwards through the rocky woodland, quickly finding an abundance of our two other filmy fern species, Tunbridge filmy-fern (Hymenophyllum tunbridgense) and Wilson’s filmy-fern (H. wilsonii), as well as the beautiful rare oceanic tropical liverwort Dumortiera hirsuta, and more Killarney fern gametophyte in every suitable crevice. 

"As we approached a jumble of boulders below a rockface, through which the stream flowed, I remarked, only partly in jest, that there’d definitely be sporophyte there, and I could scarcely believe my eyes when I looked down and there was a perfect mature frond of Killarney fern sticking out from between two boulders. 

Oonagh admiring Wilson's filmy-fern
Image: R. Hodd

"The excited and elated team quickly converged on the spot to pay their respects, and a quick search revealed a further 20 fronds hiding in the crevice below. After swearing an oath not to reveal the location to anyone, we clambered out of the woods and into the daylight, privileged to be the first botanists to set eyes on this population of such a rare and captivating plant, adding to the very short list of known sites for the sporophyte in Ireland or Britain. It's days like that that make botanising off the beaten track so rewarding and worthwhile".

Many thanks to Rory for telling us about this amazing find. It was a privilege to meet the man himself at this weekend's AGM of the British Bryological Society and congratulate him on his sharp eyes and skill as an ecologist. Thanks also to Hammy Hamilton - you can't beat local knowledge, especially when paired with an understanding of the ecology of the plant you're looking for, so you know where to hunt for it. 

Botanical find of the year? It will be hard to top both generations of Killarney Fern, but Ghost Orchid hunters may yet come up trumps ;-)

Autumn Lady's-tresses found during BSBI Recorders' Conference fieldtrip

Jon Shanklin, Richard & Kath Pryce and
fellow botanists enjoy the September sun.
Llanymynech Rocks, 4/9/2016
Image: Geoffrey Hall

BSBI Welsh Officer Polly reports on the opening and closing days of the BSBI Recorders' Conference, held last weekend in Shrewsbury:

"74 keen botanists were welcomed to The Gateway at lunchtime on Friday and after a warm welcome from Sarah Whild and Sue Townsend the talks began with Mark Charlesworth, who gave us a very interesting talk on recording non-natives. 

"I think the take-home message was: if you are going to record non-natives, especially in an urban environment, status is everything!

Using 3-D specs to aid understanding
of the physiology of charophytes
Image courtesy of Anne Middleton 

"We then had a fascinating talk from Andrew Cherrill about habitat survey (Phase 1 and NVC) and the difficulty in achieving consistent results – he asked if a “Field Habitat Identification Skills Certificate” was needed but we couldn’t quite imagine how one would be implemented. 

"After tea we heard from Colin French about the Cornish Biodiversity Network – which has unfortunately separated from the local records centre but is extremely successful, with a beautiful database system (including some most impressive functions on indicator species).

Puzzling over a tricky Myosotis specimen
Image: Polly Spencer-Vellacott

"Still at The Gateway, there were three options for workshops: charophytes, conifers or eyebrights – I went to eyebrights (Euphrasia spp.) as I had already done one of Chris Metherell’s one-day workshops and wanted a bit of revision! If you haven’t been to one yet, Chris is well worth hearing if you get a chance.

"Back at FSC Preston Montford for the evening, there were sessions with Tom Humphrey on the DDb and John Poland on Vegetative ID, while I had a huge group to revise Myosotis, and ended up hearing a description of M. sicula (Jersey Forget-me-not) from Anne Haden, the County Recorder for Jersey, and discussing a putative M. x suzae (which I shall be sending off to the referee for confirmation)".

At Llanymynech Rocks: looking up!
Image: Sarah Lambert

A report on Day 2 can be found here - it was a great day, prompting Helena Crouch, County Recorder for N. Somerset, to email: "Thank you for a brilliant Recorders’ Conference. It is always the highlight of my year, and I come home inspired to work harder and learn to be a better botanist. I found the QGIS talk fascinating... I would really like more talks on the use of new technologies in recording.

"I thought this Recorders’ Conference seemed a particularly happy and friendly one.  Perhaps the Midnight Salsa Workshop has influenced my memory of the weekend! You should all have been there!"

Communal botanising at Llanymynech Rocks
Image: Sarah Lambert

Anne Middleton had also tweeted about the Midnight Salsa session but although I pleaded for more details and photos (oh, how I wish I had photos for you!) Helena and Anne are maintaining an enigmatic silence. I bet that John 'Party Animal' Poland was involved.... I'll try and worm the details out of him after the next Pubs' meeting!

Polly again: "On the final morning (Sunday), most of the participants headed off for a field visit to Llanymynech Rocks, while a few keen people stayed behind to look at the DDb (with Tom Humphrey) or MapMate (with me)".

Spiranthes spiralis
Image: Richard Aisbitt

Martin Rand, Jon Shanklin and David Earl are working on the records from the fieldtrip – with so many sharp-eyed and skilled botanists present, there are a few specimens of possible hybrids and infra-specific taxa to be pored over by our expert referees. 

Graeme Kay and Arthur Chater for example recorded Epilobium cf ciliatum x montanum and a specimen has gone to the Epilobium referee for confirmation. 

We can reveal one nice record, of whose identity there can be little doubt and which was shared here on Twitter by Janet Higgins: the group found Spiranthes spiralis (Autumn Lady's-tresses). A perfect end to a perfect weekend!

But... over in the west of Ireland, the Cork Recording Event was also in full swing and botanists were about to make a discovery which would overshadow even Autumn Lady's- tresses. 

We're hoping to share a report with you tomorrow but if you really can't wait, take a look on the BSBI News page here!

I'll leave you with a final image of a happy botanist enjoying the Recorders' Conference - if you want to be smiling like this, finding amazing plants in stunning locations and picking up ID tips from friendly fellow botanists, keep an eye on the BSBI meetings page and come along to our next event. See you there!

Dave and fellow botanists in the field,
BSBI Recorders' Conference 2016.
Image: John Handley

Another honour for the 'Hybrid Flora' authors

Following on from the recent announcement on these pages that the three co-authors of the Hybrid Flora of the British Isles have been awarded the Engler Silver Medal, we have just been informed of yet another honour for Clive Stace, Chris Preston and David Pearman.

The Hybrid Flora has been shortlisted for the BES Marsh Book Award 2016, which is funded by the Marsh Christian Trust and is run in association with the British Ecological Society. You can see the other nominations here (there are three of them) but for more information about the Hybrid Flora, please click here, here or here. 

For those of us fortunate enough to own, or have access to, a copy of the Hybrid Flora, these accolades will come as no surprise - as Professor Richard Abbott says in his Foreword “This remarkable book will be an essential reference for all British and Irish botanists who have an interest in hybrids. … No other book of its kind exists for other parts of the world and consequently this book will surely set the standard for future hybrid Floras”.

BSBI Recorders' Conference in full swing

Chris Metherell leads an Eyebright ID workshop
Image: S. Townsend

Sarurday was the second day of the BSBI Recorders' Conference in Shrewsbury, and 74 keen botanical recorders gathered at The Gateway in Shrewsbury.

They were all ready for a jam-packed day of talks, workshops, catching up with old friends and making new ones (or, if you want it in management speak, taking advantage of networking opportunities!) and of course spending their money in the Summerfield Books pop-up shop. 

Extract from a French Flora
Image: L. Marsh

Martin Rand (County Recorder for South Hants.) kicked off the day's proceedings with a talk about the Floras of other European countries and some resources arising from his presentation should soon be available via the BSBI website's Overseas page. We'll also be sharing Powerpoints from the Recorders' Conference here.

Next up was Claudia Ferguson-Smyth, well-known to News & Views readers from her Dandelion workshops; her co-authored paper in New Journal of Botany describing Taraxacum pankhurstianum, named for our late and much-missed mutual friend Richard Pankhurst; her recording and underwater filming of Hebridean aquatics; and her fabulous photography which features on the covers of early volumes of New Journal of Botany. In recent years Claudia has curated the cover, this year using images from the very successful BSBI photography competition which she also helped to build up. 

A slide from Claudia's beautifully illustrated talk
 - illustration drawn by her daughter Megan.
Image: L. Marsh

Claudia stepped into the breach after co-speaker Nick Stewart sadly had to pull out at the last minute and she did a fabulous job. 

By the time we broke for coffee, she had convinced her audience that we could - and should - go out looking for charophytes in suitable habitat (she told us where to look!) and that with the aid of Nick's key we would be able to make a stab at IDing them. And it would be fun! 

Facebook was soon buzzing with people asking if Nick's key would be made available via the BSBI website and the answer is - it's already there! Columns 1&2 on the Identification page have links in alphabetical order to Plant Cribs for many taxa but column 3 has all the other resources and Nick's key is at the top of the column.

Rich Burkmar in action
Image: R. Mabbutt

After coffee, we enjoyed a QGIS demo by Rich Burkmar which again left us all buzzing with ideas and keen to have a bash. A bit more info here for us to follow up. Then a fascinating talk by BSBI Scientific Officer Pete Stroh about recording rare plants in his county (Northants.) and issues around detectability. 

It was very thought-provoking and full of funny asides and observations, but an alarm bell was sounded when Pete flagged up some of the less common species which really do seem to be in decline, just as he and co-authors of the England Red List stated in their analysis. A reminder that you can download the List free of charge here.

Poring over the book bargains with
Paul O'Hara (in red) of Summerfield Books
Image: L. Marsh

Lunch break and a chance to visit the Summerfield Books pop-up shop. Some great secondhand bargains to be had there, alongside the glossy new stock. Several newly-joined BSBI members were delighted to pick up copies of early editions of the celebrated Sedge Handbook for only a few pounds. 

Paul O'Hara of Summerfield Books says the Sedge Handbook has the highest sales of any of the BSBI Handbooks, and one look through makes it clear why - it really is indispensable if you are getting to grips with sedges. 

The latest edition has lots of hybrids in and of course a BSBI distribution map for each taxon but I confess to a fondness for the lightweight 1st and 2nd editions which slip so easily into the pocket whenever you head out into the field. Edition 3 stays at home on the shelf! 

Vegetative ID workshop
with John Poland (standing)
Image: R. Mabbutt 

In the afternoon, people were able to choose any two workshops from the six on offer. I opted first for a vegetative ID session with John Poland and even as a seasoned user of this amazing book, I picked up some new tips from John, who had brought in a binliner full of leaves and stems, each specimen demonstrating a different ID character used in the key. 

So the dendritic hairs of a Verbascum leaf were cooed over (like tiny trees!) and praised afterwards on Twitter, and we all enjoyed a comment from Arthur Chater that the best way to confirm medifixed hairs is to poke one end with a pin and see if the other end wiggles!

A fellow botanist who has only recently started using the Veg Key also found the session a delight and later posted this on the BSBI Facebook page. 

Standing room only at
Mark Duffell's aliens workshop
Image: L.Marsh

The final session was a workshop on IDing alien plants, led by Mark Duffell. It was standing and perching room only as Mark produced specimen after specimen of live material of various aliens, some invasive, with native taxa for comparison, and he guided us expertly through what to look for. Mark has built up a serious reputation as an excellent tutor and his skill was certainly in evidence on Saturday. An excellent close to a fabulous day.

Some of us had to head home at this point, inspired and buzzing with ideas, but those staying on for the Sunday field trip headed back to their accommodation at FSC Preston Montford and an evening of after-dinner workshops. Watch this space for the next report from this year's BSBI Recorders' Conference. 

Celebrating Ireland's first female botanist II

Ellen Hutchins Festival: Meeting point
for the lichen foray in Ballylickey
Image: C. Heardman

Following a recent post by Robin Walls, giving a glimpse into what sort of things a BSBI County Recorder actually does, here is another example from Clare Heardman, County Recorder for West Cork. 

Clare has been busy organising this weekend's Cork Recording Event but below, she offers an account of another botanical event she has been involved with recently in her day job as NPWS Conservation Ranger. 

Over to Clare: 

Fucus capillaris collected by
Ellen Hutchins in Bantry Bay, 1808.
Reproduced with the kind permission of
The Herbarium, Botany Department,
Trinity College Dublin.

"The second annual Ellen Hutchins Festival has just finished in West Cork. Ellen (1785 - 1815) is widely regarded as Ireland’s first female botanist and the inaugural festival took place last year to mark the 200th anniversary of her death. 

"The festival proved so popular that the organisers - me, Madeline Hutchins (Ellen Hutchins’ great great grandniece) and Angela O’Donovan (BantryHistorical Society) - decided to make the event an annual fixture.

"This year the festival started with a seaweed event on Whiddy Island, which was one of the places Ellen visited in the early 1800s, recording and collecting seaweeds. 

"Her finds included species which were first described from Bantry Bay and have thus been preserved as type specimens. 

Pelvetia canaliculata
collected by a participant in
the seaweed event 2016 Bantry Bay
Image: C. Heardman

"The event was led by Dr Susan Steele (Sea Fisheries Protection Authority), who walked us in Ellen’s footsteps, collecting and preserving samples early-1800s style by floating them on to paper. 

"Ellen pre-dated photography and posting specimens of fragile algae to botanists in the UK was a fraught task, so she turned her hand to botanical art, producing some exquisite illustrations. 

Art workshop in progress, Bantry House Stables
Image: C. Heardman

"Most of Ellen’s original artworks are held in  institutions in Britain, but last year permission was obtained from the museum at Kew Gardens to reproduce some of her seaweed drawings. 

"This year the framed prints were displayed in an art trail that stretched from Bantry to Ballylickey and Glengarriff. 

Live botanical art demonstration
with Shevaun Doherty.
Image: C. Heardman

"Also displayed in shop windows and other premises, were exhibition panels and prints of some of her specimens, reproduced with the kind permission of institutions such as Trinity College Dublin (TCD).

"Continuing the art theme, award-winning botanical artist Shevaun Doherty gave a wonderful two-day workshop in the atmospheric location of Bantry House Stables and Gardens. Like Ellen, Shevaun produces the most exquisite and accurate watercolours of plants. 

"The workshop was followed by a live art demonstration by Shevaun in Organico Café. Meanwhile budding artists aged 4-14, took part in a nature art event which including doing leaf rubbings.

"Another workshop which took place during the festival was a two-day introduction to cryptogams, the branch of botany that Ellen specialised in. 

A rubbing of a fern during one of the
children’s nature art events
Image: C. Heardman

"Dr Howard Fox, a botanist based in the herbarium at the National Botanic Gardens Glasnevin, and his partner Maria Cullen, took the participants on a journey into the world of lichens, bryophytes and algae at Ballylickey House, where Ellen was born, and Ardnagashel Estate, where she spent the last few months of her life.

"At a panel discussion later in the week, Howard, Shevaun and Madeline were joined on the stage by Sean Moffatt. Sean is a scriptwriter for television and radio who became fascinated by Ellen’s story and produced a piece for RTE last year about the discovery of some of Ellen’s specimens in TCD. 

Looking at lichens on the shore
at Ardnagashel with Dr Howard Fox
Image: C. Heardman

"The contributions of the four panellists were complemented by a pop-up exhibition of photos, letters, books, prints and other Ellen-related memorabilia which is owned by the Hutchins family. The pop-up exhibition also proved a popular attraction at Bantry House during their open garden day as part of Heritage Week.

"The festival was rounded off by a fascinating walk in Glengarriff Woods Nature Reserve led by the passionate and knowledgeable Dr Padraig Whelan of University College Cork. Padraig knows the woods very well, having been bringing students to the Reserve for at least 20 years. He has inspired a generation of students and was equally inspirational to those who attended his walk.

Group at Glengarriff Woods Nature Reserve
with Dr Padraig Whelan
Image: C. Heardman 

"Next year’s Ellen Hutchins Festival will once again take place in West Cork during Heritage Week 19th-27th August 2017. In the meantime, thanks to botanist Professor John Parnell, TCD is hosting an exhibition about Ellen opening on 9th February, which is the date Ellen was born. Put the dates in your diary!"

Many thanks to Clare for this account and fingers crossed that the weather is kind this weekend to her and all the other botanists attending the Cork Recording Event. Watch this space for updates on which plants they find, or follow the action on Twitter!

Long-term site monitoring

Nice to hear from regular News & Views reader/contributor Martin Godfrey, who says:

"There has been quite a lot on the blog recently on the subject of recording and recording trips and I thought that it might be interesting to briefly mention another aspect of botanical recording – repeat long-term site monitoring.

Recorders in the pose so typical of
both botanists and bryologists!
Image: M. Godfrey

"In the middle of July the time came round once more for repeat monitoring of the Fenns and Whixall, Bettisfield and Wem Mosses NNR to add some more results/ data to English Nature’s long-term management work at the sites. 

On Monday the 15th the volunteers assembled at the NNR HQ at Whixall for a briefing and some refresher training on the monitoring technique – it is quite intensive, involving the recording both of plant species presence and their percentage cover in a number of fixed 2m square quadrats, each in turn subdivided into 25 smaller square plots. 

"As well as recording plant species a number of habitat variables are measured including a member of the English Nature staff checking ground water level in permanent dip wells. Following the training, teams of 3-4 people were put together and recording began.

The Recording Team at the end of the day:
 bryologists standing upright at last!
Martin 2nd from right in white hat.
Image: M. Godfrey  

"Now one of the potential snags in all of this is that there are more than just flowering plants growing on mosses – some ferns and indeed there are “mosses” too, sometimes forming a substantial amount of the ground flora – and these include members of the genus Sphagnum and many small liverworts which tend to make botanists rather nervous. 

"To help get around this problem, English Nature talked two individuals into being specialist advisors who could identify the bryophytes and help others to do the same. So Martha Newton and I ended up with a group of survey teams each to “advise” – great fun although involving rather a lot of trekking between quadrats  over rather dodgy bog. 

"I must say that it is a great tribute to the skills of the recorders that after about a day most of them had sorted out the main bryophyte species leaving Martha and me to confirm IDs for the less confident and identify the really small liverworts and scruffy bits of moss – frequently in the evening with the microscope, and in my case with an accompanying glass of wine. 

The relaxed approach!
Mind you, if this was Martin...
that coffee would be replaced by wine!
Image: M. Godfrey

"The four days of recording passed smoothly, and in good weather - I certainly enjoyed myself and judging from the general chat so did everyone else.

"I find that there is a great deal of satisfaction to be had in recording in this way, not just from the seeing and identifying of interesting plant material but in knowing that what you are doing is contributing to robust data on long term change and site-management effectiveness. I would recommend it to anyone as an interesting change to 'square bashing'." 

Many thanks to Martin for reminding us that, although recorders are currently in 'full steam ahead' mode towards Atlas 2020, long-term monitoring is also worthwhile and enjoyable. And fair play to him for managing to sneak some lower plants on to this page, which is very naughty! Martin knows perfectly well that BSBI's brief is the study, understanding and enjoyment of vascular plants and that bryophytes are considered non-vascular - they just don't have the advanced plumbing systems enjoyed by higher plants. But those "scruffy bits of moss" do have a certain charm and engage the interest of many a botanist during the winter months, when many higher plants are thin on the ground (due in part to that fancy vascular system!)    

BSBI Plant Referee on the case

Last week I spotted an interesting post on Twitter from BSBI member Martin, with a photo of an unusual looking Horsetail. I asked Martin to tell us more and he very kindly offers us this guest blogpost:

"I was walking through one of my local ancient woodlands back in June preparing for a “Woodland Explorer” day I was to be leading for a group of local eight year-old children (which you can read about here) and noticed something odd out of the corner of my eye. It seemed to be a Giant Horsetail but there was something not quite right about it; I didn’t have the right reference book with me so I took a photo of it.

"When I got back home I looked at the pictures in my reference books, which is usually the quickest way to ID something for me, but Giant Horsetail it seems has single whorls only. 

"Read the descriptions – to be honest I’m not the best at following all the technical words - Wood Horsetail does the many small branches thing, but some of the bits weren’t right and my plant was way too big. I discovered there were hybrids *sigh* and tried the image search on the internet. 

"There’s a Bowman’s Horsetail (who knew?) that looked similar – Giant horsetail hybridising with Wood Horsetail. I guessed at that, but as it’s so rare and obscure I thought I’d missed something really, really obvious somewhere. I did my usual trick of waiting for second thoughts.

"Six days later, whilst doing the washing up, I remembered that the BSBI had a whole load of experts you can ask". [LM: Only if you are a BSBI member, sorry!] "A quick hunt for the BSBI Yearbook and I had an email address for the Horsetail Referee. I sent the pic and suggested it might be Equisetum x bowmanii. 

"I got a lovely answer, thanking me for sending the photographs and saying 'No, it’s not the hybrid (I can send you a sample of it if you wish to compare) but it is very interesting, if you wouldn’t mind sending a pressed stem as then I can check for absolute certainty'.

"To cut a long story short, about a month later I collected more, photographed and pressed them, and now I’ve sent them off and so we should know what it is in a couple of weeks or so".

Martin has promised to send an update once he hears back from the Referee. All 106 of BSBI's expert Plant Referees are volunteers, just like our 186 County Recorders, and they provide their services to members as part of the membership package. A very important part too!