Final results in from Mayo

Rough Crew in a Mayo gulley

Botanists who took part in BSBI's Mayo Recording Week are enjoying a well-earned rest today, following their amazing results - this just in from Irish Officer Maria Long:

"Final tally from the hugely successful Mayo BSBI recording week is in, and I can't believe what we achieved! 

• 42 botanists took part (some for the entire 8 days!)
• 33 hectads (10x10 km sq) all across Mayo were visited
• 132 monads (1x1 km sq) were visited
• And, ... ... wait for it, ... ...
• 10,824 plant records were collected!!

Celebration dinner (takeaway!): 10,000+ records! 

Each and every participant should pat themselves on the back, and particularly the leaders!"

Hear hear! Congratulations to all the botanists who contributed to these excellent results which will feed into BSBI's distribution database and show up in Atlas 2020. 

Every dot on a BSBI distribution map is thanks to our amazing BSBI members who go out botanising across Britain and Ireland, recording where our beautiful - and often threatened - wild flowers are growing and feeding their records back via our County Recorders (186 of them!), with support from our team of 105 specialist plant referees. What a fabulous network! 

If you're new to botany but would like to get more involved in our work, head over here to find out more and then consider this next move!

Hunting Eyebrights in the West Country

Helena and Chris look at Eyebrights in Somerset
Image: F. Rumsey

Chris Metherell has been busy again this summer with a final season of fieldwork towards the new Euphrasia (Eyebright) Handbook, This follows a winter running training sessions in herbaria across the country and building up the Euphrasia Study Group. And being our General Secretary, an honorary position involving large amounts of unpaid work! 

Euphrasia vigursii
Image: F. Rumsey

Chris is currently on Shetland (at his own expense), looking at Eyebrights and going out recording with the Atlas 2020 team, including Ian Denholm and Lynne Farrell, but he sent this report through before he left: 

"Last month, Fred Rumsey and I spent four days in the West Country (Somerset, Devon and Cornwall) on a BSBI Publications Committee grant to finish off work towards the BSBI Euphrasia Handbook and had some money left over to have a couple of days in North Wales so that Fred could photograph and draw the last plant he needed for the illustrations – Euphrasia cambrica.

I'm pleased to say that we managed to find all our target species, and most of the hybrids we hoped we might see. 

E.vigursii x triquetra
Image: F. Rumsey 

In the West Country we had Helena Crouch (County Recorder for North Somerset VC6) with us, who proved to be an invaluable asset as well as being another pair of eyes. 

Our main target here was E. vigursii which although we found at several sites appeared to have vanished from many more and to be in danger of hybridising out at others. Or perhaps it was just a dry summer?

It is however a particularly beautiful plant, perhaps only being surpassed by its hybrid with E. tetraquetra which is fairly common along the north coast of Cornwall around St Agnes Head. 

Helena & Chris on cliff with Eyebrights
Image: F. Rumsey

However perhaps the best moment of the trip happened on the final evening, when, after a somewhat frustrating day chasing down sites where Euphrasia no longer appeared to exist, we visited the cliffs at Branscombe, Devon. 

A warm summer's evening on chalk cliffs with E. pseudokerneri (and many other spectacular plants crowded into a realatively small area, including E. pseudokerneri x tetraquetra just for good measure -  a Euphrasiologist's life doesn't get much better!"

Thanks Chris! Part two to follow, in which Chris and Fred head to Snowdonia to meet up with County Recorder Wendy McCarthy in pursuit of the Welsh Eyebright Euphrasia cambrica and the final illustration for the Euphrasia Handbook. 

Rough Crew find rarities in Mayo

BSBI's Mayo Recording Week is going from strength to strength, with botanists - including the Rough Crew - finding some amazing plants. 

Here's the latest update courtesy of Rory Hodd, ace Irish botanist/bryologist/ecologist attending the Recording Week. Thanks also to Rory for posting these great pix on the BSBI Ireland Facebook page.

Here are the results as of Saturday evening:

• 89 monads (1km x 1km squares) have been visited:
• around 8,500 plant records collected so far;
• 39 botanists have been out recording;
• 1 talk about BSBI's work was given to members of the public.

Apparently the Rough Crew visited the remote corrie of Corranabinnia, deep in the heart of the Ballycroy National Park in North Mayo. 


Rory said "The day turned out to be a true adventure, involving driving down rutted tracks, jumping or wading rivers, crossing treacherous wet bogs and clambering up and down wet crags. 

"It was all worth it, as we encountered some lovely and rarely seen montane species". 

Saussurea alpina (above left) was one of these - click here to see where it is recorded - and the Rough Crew also found Saxifraga oppositifolia with its diagnostic lime-exuding pore at the leaf tip.


Other teams of recorders have been out covering some less challenging locations in Mayo - we always make sure there is something for everyone on our recording meetings!

One team also saw Spiranthes romanzoffiana (above right). The lucky dogs! Thanks to John Conaghan for the image of this lovely orchid.

Will the Mayo recorders manage to reach 10,000 records by close of play on Monday? Watch this space! 

BSBI in Mayo and on social media

Recording hedgerow wildflowers in Mayo
Image: M. Long

Update from Maria on the BSBI Mayo Recording Week after collating records from the first two full days:

• 33 monads (1x1km squares) visited in 12 hectads (10x10km squares)
• 3,700 plant records collected
• 27 botanists out recording
• 1 talk given to the public by BSBI Irish Officer Maria Long.

And that's in just two days! Part of the success is undoubtedly due to the fast-becoming-legendary endeavours of the Rough Crew, a fearless band of botanists prepared to climb mountains and tramp through bogs in pursuit of wild plants.

The Rough Crew at Mweelrea Mountain
Image: M. Long

The BSBI Ireland Facebook page tells us that on Wednesday the Rough Crew tackled Mweelrea Mountain and recorded "a nice range of nice montane species... including Deschampsia caespitosa subsp. alpina, Salix herbacea, Carex bigelowii and Cystopteris fragilis".

It's great to be able to follow the daily progress of the Mayo recording team via social media - another example of how BSBI is using C21st technology to keep all our botanists in the loop. Watch this space and the BSBI Ireland Facebook page for more updates from Mayo!

BSBI using social media to spread the word

1. We are using the BSBI Twitter account to spread the word about BSBI and it seems to be working! This exchange from earlier today with a young ecological consultant complimenting us on our friendly approach on social media: 
2. 9 hours ago

   1. Grantham Ecologist @GranthamEcology
   2. #ff has to be @BSBIbotany whose excellent tweets and RT's engage, discuss, inform, enthuse and educate on a daily basis :)
3. BSBI ‏@BSBIbotany  43m43 minutes ago
   BSBI retweeted Grantham Ecologist
   .@GranthamEcology Thank you! @BSBIbotany aims to promote study understanding & enjoyment (v imp!) of B&I wildflowers
4. 
   
5. Grantham Ecologist ‏@GranthamEcology  5m5 minutes ago

   @BSBIbotany mission accomplished - I joined earlier this year based on how engaging and involved you are with members (and non!) on here :)
6. You can see what I put out on the BSBI Twitter account by casting your eyes a few inches to your right - that's the Twitter feed and you can view it without leaving this page - just scroll down to see images of plants (with discussions on ID and links to distribution maps), notices about conferences, new publications, links to open access papers, details of field meetings, training opportunities and general banter about British and Irish wild flowers.

BSBI Recording Week in Mayo

Happy botanists at Lough Lannagh,
Castlebar, Co. Mayo
Image: M. Long

The Mayo Recording Week is now underway and first reports are coming in from Irish Officer Maria Long, who says:

"Successful (though soggy) day 1, easing ourselves into the Mayo BSBI recording week. We made two plant lists, both with over 150 species, and we didn't stray more than 600m from our accommodation! I'd call that a good result!"

Drosera intermedia
Image courtesy of J. Crellin
http://www.floralimages.co.uk/page.php?
taxon=drosera_intermedia,1

Last night, Maria added "The BSBI Mayo recording week continues apace, a small group enjoyed getting out on lovely intact bog, at Knockmoyle Nature Reserve near Bellacorrick, nice things seen included the rare oceanic aquatic Eriocaulon aquaticum, and all three Drosera species".

Let's hope that Maria and the team (I think 35 botanists have signed up for the Recording Week!) get lots more good records for Atlas 2020. And that the weather is kind to them!

You can follow Maria's daily bulletins from Mayo on the BSBI Ireland Facebook page here. You don't need a Facebook account to take a look at the page, although you can only leave a comment if you do have a Facebook account.

Botanising on Shetland 1: Shetland Mouse-ear

Good to hear from BSBI President Ian Denholm who has flown up to the northernmost limit of BSBI's geographical range in pursuit of wild flowers. Ian says:

Shetland Mouse-ear
Image: I. Denholm

"A BSBI team led by Scottish Officer JimMcIntosh and Paul Harvey from the Shetland Biological Records Centre has assembled on Unst, the northernmost of the Shetland Islands, for a week of plant recording. 

"While awaiting the arrival of others, a small group visited the spectacular bare serpentine rock at the Keen of Hamar Nature Reserve in search of rare plants including the Shetland Mouse-ear, aka Edmonston's Chickweed Cerastium nigrescens var. nigrescens, known from nowhere else in the world (an endemic).

"This proved to be in good quantity and in perfect flower. Over the week, the team, which also includes our Hon Gen Sec and Eyebright guru Chris Metherell, and two other trustees – Lynne Farrell and Mick Crawley – will be recording at selected locations on Unst and its neighbouring island, Fetlar".

Thanks Ian! You can see the single red dot on this distribution map which shows where the plant is recorded but you will have to zoom in and up. It really is in only one square and nowhere else in the world! 

Interpretation panel on Unst
Image: I. Denholm