Botanists at all skill levels join in New Year Plant Hunt 2016

Galium album blooming in Newquay
Image: Judy Swift

The deadline has now passed for submitting New Year Plant Hunt records and Co-ordinator Ryan is probably quite relieved - the poor man has been rushed off his feet this year! I've just been having a look at the database to find some interesting snippets for you and the columns of records seem to go on and on...  

It's fascinating to see the plant records that some botanical "big names" sent in. Past BSBI Presidents David Pearman, Michael Braithwaite and Ian Denholm were out hunting in Cornwall, Berwickshire and Herts. respectively and current President John Faulkner was out hunting in Armagh. 

David Pearman was with members of the Botanical Cornwall Group in Newquay and their list of 61 species in flower included our first record of Kickxia elatine (Sharp-leaved Fluellen) and a very out-of-season Galium album (Hedge bedstraw)! 

Kevin Walker, BSBI Head of Science, was out with his children in W. Yorks. and they found 18 species in flower. Obviously not all our eminent botanists were able to devote three whole hours to a Plant Hunt but several very kindly submitted short lists while nipping to the shops and others managed to find interesting species in flower. 

Kickxia elatine blooming in Newquay
Image: Judy Swift

Mick Crawley nabbed the only records this year of Mirabilis jalapa (Marvel-of-Peru) and Sisymbrium irio (London-rocket). 

Remember Sandy Knapp's Mystery Mustard from her Plant Hunt around Walthamstow Marshes? Her original hunch was Sisymbrium irio but like the world-class botanist she is, Sandy checked her plant carefully against herbarium specimens and this what she said:

"Checking the identity of our mystery mustard (always so tricky, mustards) in the herbarium let me see the variation in these most variable of plants - it was great to see how the leaf shape is different up and down the plant (just like ours) and over the season. 

"Mustard identification depends so much on fruit, it's tough when you are not sure if the siliques are full size or not....  I thought our mystery plant was Sisymbrium with bitsy siliques, but in fact it was Hirschfeldia incana (Hoary mustard) - tiny siliques normal in this species! 

London Botanical Still Life #2:
'Imprisoned Mercury'
Image: Sophie Leguil 

"The other character I shall always remember this one by was the way the leaves were in clumps on the stem, and the incredibly loooong inflorescence. But really, I couldn't have done it without the BSBI Crucifers Handbook, the NHM herbarium and of course the incomparable Fred Rumsey!!"

Ok, now we know what Sandy's secret weapons are - a great ID book, a great herbarium, and a fellow BSBI member to discuss the plant with ;-) And this is the second record of H. incana in bloom - Jim also found it in Edinburgh. It does seem to be a plant that likes city life in general, whereas Sisymbrium irio favours London, as its common name suggests!

Also out New Year Plant Hunting were Alan Cann of Annals of Botany fame who spotted eight species blooming during a short walk in Leics. and bryologist Sam Bosanquet of Mosses and Liverworts of Britain & Ireland fame who found 23 higher plant species in bloom in Northants. 

BSBI Grasses expert Arthur Copping recorded 44 species around Diss in Norfolk, including our only records so far of Anisantha diandra (Great Brome) and Chenopodium ficifolium (Fig-leaved Goosefoot) in flower, while Trevor Dines of Plantlife (and a BSBI member, of course!) found 36 species blooming in the lanes of Denbighshire. 

Petrocoptis pyrenaica
Image: P. Oswald

Arthur Chater, author of the Flora of Cardiganshire as well as BSBI's gold standard Guide to Pressing a Herbarium Specimen, had Rubus ulmifolius (one of the hundreds of 'micro-species' of Brambles) on his list of 36 species in bloom from a 2-hour walk in Cardiganshire. His fellow "Pubs" member Philip Oswald sent several lists from his peregrinations in Cambridge - 27 species from one 45 minute walk, 21 from another. 

Philip, Arthur and several other "Pubs" members, all friends of the late Peter Sell, have been working hard to bring the final two volumes of Sell & Murrell to press so it's good to hear of them getting out to do a little plant-spotting. 

And Philip spotted one particularly noteworthy plant. He sent the image (on left) saying: 

"Petrocoptis pyrenaica, established for several years on a wall in Shaftesbury Road, Cambridge, possibly for the first time in the wild in Britain. Photo of 19th December 2015, but still flowering well on 1st January 2016 (when the light was poor for photography)".  

Ivy Broomrape blooming in Cambridge
Image: P. Oswald

Not only are Arthur and Philip superb field botanists but between them they have chalked up many years of service on "Pubs" (BSBI Publications Committee), advising the Committee and New Journal of Botany on issues from copyright to Latin descriptions of new species but, although they are both somewhat older than the botanists featured here, this hasn't stopped them from keeping up with social media. Philip very kindly responded to several plant ID queries and observations he noticed on these pages and on the BSBI Twitter feed. 

On Helena and the Somerset Rare Plants Group finding Ivy Broomrape Orobanche hederae in bloom, Philip said "It isn't just in Somerset that O. hederae is flowering, though admittedly it's native there and only naturalised in Cambridge. Here (on right) is a photo of one of two plants in flower in Mill Road Cemetery this morning – along with more than a hundred dead spikes.

"I believe it is a consistent characteristic of this species that, unlike any other Orobanche (anyway to my knowledge), spikes regularly come up all through the period from June to November (the latest that I have seen them previously –  in the Botanic Garden, killed off by a sharp frost).

Ceratocapnos claviculata (Climbing Corydalis)
blooming on Killiney Hill, Dublin 1/1/2016
Image: Sylvia Reynolds

"It looks as if the colony in Mill Road Cemetery has expanded from an area of Irish Ivy into one of Hedera helix ssp. helix, which – inexplicably to me, but obstinately – the late David McClintock maintained it didn't grow on"!

Martin Rand, County Recorder for S. Hants. got several excellent lists from his own Plant Hunts and also very kindly acted as one of our Expert Referees for the duration of the New Year Plant Hunt. Kevin Walker, Brian Laney and Ian Denholm have checked a few tricky plants and thanks also go to John Poland who checked vegetative IDs on a few atypical specimens - just to be extra sure that the results, which we hope to circulate next week, will be as robust as possible!

Coming up next: the first of the New Year Plant Hunt prizes!

Botanists of all ages join in New Year Plant Hunt 2016

"Six of the best from Barnaby"
Image: C. Booth

One of the nicest aspects of the New Year Plant Hunt for me was hearing from families who had been out hunting together, and especially from two young plant-hunters, Barnaby in Scotland and Elizabeth in England. 

Barnaby needed a little help in order to submit his records of six plants in bloom in Crieff, Scotland. He is three years old so Grandpa, who is a BSBI member, helped with some of the identifications and writing the email, but Barnaby recognised the Daisy and Dandelion all by himself. 

Barnaby was only able to spend ten minutes on his Plant Hunt, as he is currently engaged on important research into how high he can go on his swing, but we hope that he and Grandpa will be able to take part again next year.   

In Notts, Elizabeth Widdowson went out on a New Year Plant Hunt with her father, botanist Kevin Widdowson. They spotted three plants of Shepherd's-purse which seemed bigger than usual so they measured the plants very carefully.  One of them was 1 metre tall! 

Elizabeth holding the floppy plants
upright to measure them
Image courtesy of K. & A. Widdowson

They sent their photos and measurements to Dr Tim Rich. Tim wrote the BSBI Handbook on Crucifers, the family of plants to which Shepherd's-purse belongs. He agreed that all three of Elizabeth's plants were bigger than the biggest ones he had measured for his Handbook.

Tim very kindly sent Elizabeth a message congratulating her on being "the measurer of the tallest Shepherd's-purse reported to date in the world"  and said she deserved double pocket money this month. 

Although Elizabeth was very busy with preparations for her seventh birthday party yesterday, she was kind enough to send this report for News & Views readers: 

"Me and daddy went on a walk by the river and it was rainy and muddy. I was helping my Daddy find some special plants and he said that they were called Shepherd's Purse. I found three plants and Daddy was happy. I had to help measure the plants and remember the numbers. We got very wet and Daddy carried me back to the car. 

Elizabeth measured this
Shepherd's-purse very carefully
Image courtesy of K. & A. Widdowson

"Daddy told his friends on his phone about it and they said I had found some very big plants and I was very excited. Daddy showed me his phone and a man said that my plant must be a world record. My Daddy told me that this man's name was Tim Rich and that he had written one of Daddy's plant books. This made me very happy and I am excited about telling my teacher at school".

Thank you very much to Elizabeth for telling us about her world record. We hope that she will find lots of nice plants this year (especially pink ones!). Kevin is very lucky to have such a helpful assistant. 

Kevin would also like to thank Dr Tim Rich for sending Elizabeth such an encouraging email, even if he did recommend double pocket money!

Elizabeth and other young botanists will be able to recognise the Shepherd's-purse plant by the little heart-shaped fruits. Let us know if you spot a really big plant and don't forget to take measurements and photographs, just like Elizabeth did!   

BSBI Training grants now available

Applications open today for BSBI Training grants. If you've been considering doing a botanical training course this year, there are probably two main questions you've been asking yourself: can I afford this course and am I likely to enjoy it and get something out of it? 

A BSBI Training grant may help with the former and the account below may help you answer question two! It was written by Tim Body and sets out how he used his BSBI Training grant. Over to Tim: 

"In January 2015 I successfully applied for a BSBI £250 training grant, available for ‘aspiring botanists who want to go on short training courses’. I’ve received the grant twice before, both times attending short residential botany courses at Field Studies Council centres. 

Both were excellent experiences but this year I decided to do something different and spread the grant out over five separate day courses at The Gateway in Shrewsbury. The courses are part of Manchester Metropolitan University’s Biological Recording Programmes. As well as their MSc and Certificate courses they also offer a range of day courses run throughout the year. My chosen courses were ‘Grasses in the spring’, ‘Umbellifers’, ‘Docks and Knotweeds’, ‘Daisies, Dandelions and Thistles’ and ‘Lamiaceae and Scrophulariaceae’.

I had a few reasons for the different course type this year. On the one hand I fancied a change of format and I’d been to The Gateway before for a day course on Winter Tree Identification a few years ago, so I knew the teaching environment worked for me. But the selection of tutors was the major draw. The grasses course was led by Sarah Whild who I’d crossed paths with a few times but never been taught by. Knowing a few people on the Biological Recording MSc I’d heard she was a great teacher. Umbellifers, Daisies and Lamiaceae were led by Mark Duffell who had led the Winter Tree ID course so I knew he was a good from experience. Docks and Knotweeds was led by Ros Bennett who I’ve been telling anyone who’ll listen is my hero ever since I did 'Using a Flora' with her at Flatford Mill in 2012.

You get a variety of people attending these courses. The work room is an archipelago of tables which seat four or five, complete with copies of Stace and sample trays. Sharing my table might be ecology consultants like me - you can generally spot these by the fact they look like need a good night’s sleep, coinciding with bat season as the courses do. The consultants tend to make the most notes too and take bunches of labelled samples away with them to report back to their colleagues. 

Also sharing my table might be general amateur enthusiasts from all kinds of backgrounds. I met a man whose prime interest was foraging and cooking, a lady who worked at a hospital and had taken an interest in the wild flowers growing around it, and various horticulturalists in the process of being drawn away from cultivated species to British natives. Finally you might meet the occasional expert who knows most of the content already. They are there to keep their knowledge fresh. Like the specimens, ID skills wilt and wither over time unless you keep them topped up.

What do you get from the courses? You get taught by an expert. What I like about the tutors is that they’re normal people. They stagger you at times with how much they know but they aren’t lofty boffins, detached from the struggles of the beginner. Communication is clear and adapted for the different skill levels of the attendees. 

You get the impetus and confidence to tackle the identification of plants you’ve been intimidated by. Somehow by attending you give yourself permission to tackle groups you have until now avoided. Occasionally you might think to yourself you could have figured that bit out on your own. But you realise you haven’t, and haven’t for several years in a row so probably weren’t going to without a push.

Personally I love the atmosphere of these courses. If like me you feel guilty when you’re not busy, there’s something therapeutic about doing something productive for a day with no pressure attached. The room is full of plant smells, discussions about features, people peering at specimens, and that satisfying aesthetic of stripy pencils, lined paper, scribbled notes and flower parts viewed through a hand lens.

It breaks down that invisible wall between you and the plants which you don’t ID in the field. I no longer have “Dock sp.” on my species lists after a survey. Now I tackle them. As a firm believer in the importance of having a sturdy botanical foundation as a competent generalist, these courses have filled in some important gaps for me and I’m looking forward to seeing what next year has in store".

Thanks to Tim for this account and for the images which illustrate it!

Please be aware that we only have a limited pot of money so if you want to apply for a Training grant, you'll need to get your skates on as they get snapped up quickly! 

Just head over to the Training page, scroll down column 2 and download the form. Good luck!

New Year Plant Hunt: Day Four

Sweet Cicely Myrrhis odorata
blooming in Yorkshire 3/1/2016
Image: Lin Hawthorne

The 2016 New Year Plant Hunt ended officially at sunset today and everyone who went out spotting wild plants in flower should give themselves an enormous pat on the back and a huge round of applause! 

Hundreds of you have emailed, uploaded, tweeted, blogged and posted about what you've seen. 

From Jersey and Guernsey to Orkney and Shetland, from Norfolk to Co. Cork, Cornwall to Dingwall and Kent to Donegal, from cities and villages, your records have flooded in. 

Scarlet Pimpernell Anagallis arvensis flowering
in the Dublin Bay area 2/1/2016
Image: Paul O'Flaherty

Ryan and I have been wishing we had an interactive map of Britain & Ireland that would show every single location where a Plant Hunt took place. Maybe next year!  

It will take us a few more days to process all the records and respond to all your emails so please bear with us! 

We have also extended the deadline for you to send us your records - it's now Friday 8th January. We should all have caught up by then and Ryan can start his analysis. 

We hope to have the results ready to share with you next week. I can't wait to see how they compare with last year's 368 taxa (species, hybrids and cultivars) in bloom.

Sweet Violet Viola odorata 
blooming in Sussex 1/1/2016
Image: Wendy Tagg

Ryan told me on Saturday evening (the halfway point) that he had already inputted more than 1600 records of more than 300 taxa.

If you are one of the people who took part in the New Year Plant Hunt and enjoyed recording wild flowers in bloom - as so many of you have told us you did! - why not consider getting more involved in biological recording this year? 

Obviously if you want to record wild flowers, your first stop should be here! You can find out if there's a local botany group near you and check out what they have planned for this year.

Going along to a botany outing near where you live is a great way to find out if plant recording is for you. Or try one of our national meetings.

And if you'd like to try recording other wildlife - from earthworms to birds to lichens - then you will find national societies and local networks full of people keen to help you get started and learn more. 

This blog by Kieron is a good introduction to biological recording in general - thanks also to Kieron for tweeting: 

Keiron Derek Brown ‏@KeironDBrown  7m7 minutes ago

Everywhere I look I see comments about #NewYearPlantHunt Congrats to @BSBIbotany on a cracking start to recording in 2016!

Shaggy-soldier Galinsoga quadriradiata
flowering in Edinburgh
Image: Jim Gardner

If you decide to stick with recording plants, you should also check out our friends and colleagues at the Wild Flower Society and Plantlife and see what they are up to nationally and in your area. 

When you are ready to take the next step, do check out the National Plant Monitoring Scheme, run by BSBI in partnership with Plantlife. 

You can register now for a "square" in your area where you will be asked to hunt for particular plants. 

Red dead-nettle and friends
Blooming in Co. Kerry,
Republic of Ireland for the
#NewYearPlantHunt
Image: Marc Cruise 

BSBI's Head of Science Kevin Walker and colleagues chose plants which would indicate how habitats are changing across the UK but wouldn't be too difficult for you to identify. 

There are heaps of resources to help you do this, from on-line videos to the very helpful Species Identification Guide we send you once you've registered. 

Finally, if you would like to see a very recent example of gold star recording work - something for us all to aspire to - then take a look at this by BSBI County Recorders  Quentin and John and some of their botanical friends and colleagues.

To come over the next few days: the identity of Sandy's Mystery Mustard from Saturday; a "world record" from a young botanist; and news of this year's New Year Plant Hunt prizes. 

Watch this space! 

New Year Plant Hunt: Day Three

Day Three and more records are coming through from villages, suburbs and capital cities of Britain and Ireland. 

The Wild Reekie group on their
New Year Plant Hunt
Image courtesy of Eleanor Harris

Edinburgh has yielded more lists so far than other capitals and the BSBI Twitter network made it possible to connect several Edinburgh botanists such as Jim who then met up to fit in an extra Plant Hunt in a different part of the city. 

Also in Edinburgh, a New Year Plant Hunt on Blackford Hill on 1st January, led by Eleanor of the Wild Reekie group, yielded 21 species. Warren was Hunting in the same area the day after and found 40 species in bloom. 

Gus, who joined Eleanor's walk on Friday, liked it so much that he went on to do two solo Plant Hunts in the area and then tweeted: 

Gus Routledge ‏@PinkfootedGus  21h21 hours ago

It's been great!.. So far... Going to Holyrood Park tomorrow for another #NewYearPlantHunt, I'm addicted @BSBIbotany

Collage of plants seen in bloom by James
Image: @GranthamEcologist  

Read more about Gus's Plant Hunts here. He seems to be on course to win a prize for the most New Year Plant Hunts in 2016, although he faces stiff competition from James - watch this space or follow their respective (and numerous) Plant Hunts on Twitter! 

Only a few plants have so far been recorded in bloom in Glasgow, and a Hunt at Carrbridge in the Cairgorms yielded just two daisies in bloom, but Su in Inverness found a few more plants in bloom on a walk on the edges of the city. Su told me that she enjoyed her first New Year Plant Hunt so much that she's thinking of repeating the route through the seasons and keeping a record of what she sees in flower. An excellent idea! 

Sandy's New Year Plant Hunt Team
Image: Sandy Knapp

Finally from Scotland, five species were recorded by Cliff on a walk round Loch Fleet NNR in Sutherland but we could still do with records from the Hebrides please! 

In the London area, Dr Sandy Knapp (Natural History Museum) and her team were out Plant Hunting on Walthamstow Marshes. Sandy is checking a specimen of one of the plants she found, by comparing it with the ones in the Herbarium at the Natural History Museum. 

That's why botanists love herbaria so much - once you think you've identified a plant, you can compare it with lots of other specimens of the same plant and see if you are right. 

It's a bit like leafing through a plant's photo album - a specimen pressed in springtime, showing the young leaves at their best, next to one of the plant in fruit with leaves that have done a lot of photosynthesising, next to one that grew on a rich site and is much bigger and lusher than usual. 

Fred (on left) takes BSBI members and guests
behind the scenes at the
Natural History Museum Herbarium.
BSBI Exhibition Meeting 2015
Image: Waheed Arshad

You really start to get a feel for what a plant looks like throughout its lifetime once you've been through its herbarium folder. And the folders in the Natural History Museum Herbarium are full of delights! 

Also out Plant Hunting in the London/Surrey area were Annie and her team of eight (including five botanists from the London Natural History Society). They recorded 60 species in flower.
  

London Botanical Still Life 2016 #1
'The Euphorbia and the Snail'
Image: Sophie Leguil

Caroline sent in 32 records from Surrey and Sophie, who arrived back in London yesterday, had already tweeted about the plants she found in bloom in France last week and today she treated us to one of her C21st London Botanical Still Lives which were so popular last year. Merci beaucoup Sophie! 

Floods in Kerry didn't deter Marc & Rory!
Image: Rory Hodd

From the Dublin area, records are now in from Balbriggan (32 species in bloom) and several very long lists have been received from Sylvia and Julian Reynolds, who then headed off to Limerick on the other side of Ireland for yet another Plant Hunt.

More to follow once we have processed and checked all their records and those of several other people who submitted very long lists. 

On the other side of Ireland, floods made life difficult for Marc and Rory but they still got a good list from Killarney although no Strawberry Tree in flower there this year. 

And from Armagh, Oisin reports here on a New Year Plant Hunt with Mairead and BSBI President John Faulkner. A great example of cross border botany! 

Outside capital cities, 67 species were recorded in Chepstow area by Monmouthshire Botany Group - more details to follow about New Year Plant Hunts in Wales here on Polly's blog. Terry in the Cotswolds found 22 species in bloom, first-time Plant Hunter Lisa got nine species in Sunderland and a Plant Hunt in Norfolk led by botanist and author Simon Harrap attracted a good crowd and nailed 67 records. 

Lesser Celandine blooming in Kerry
2/1/2015
Image: Marc Cruise 

Botanists in Cumbria have struggled to find very much in flower due to recent floods but their lists, however short, are still helping us build up a clearer picture of what is in flower now across Britain and Ireland. 

Over in Yorkshire, Zach submitted records and blogged about his New Year Plant Hunting here. Zach was recently awarded BBC Wildlife Magazine Junior Blogger of the Year so we are honoured that he chose to take part in and blog about the New Year Plant Hunt.

So, tomorrow is the final day of the New Year Plant Hunt. If you have contacted us with lists and queries and we haven't got back to you yet, please accept our apologies. So many emails and messages this year and we do want to read and respond to all of them, but it may take a few days!

New Year Plant Hunt: Day Two

Plants in bloom at Glengarriff NR,
Co. Cork, Republic of Ireland
Image courtesy C. Heardman/Glengarriff NR

Phew, what a day! The New Year Plant Hunt Team has been rushed off its collective feet today - receiving all your lists and answering your questions about plant identifications. 

Some of you have also given us some insight into how you think recent weather and other factors have impacted on the plants you see regularly in your local patch. 

You are all helping us build up a clearer picture, especially those of you who have also taken part in previous Plant Hunts and can compare your lists over several years.

New Year Plant Hunters at Glengarriff NR
Image: Clare Heardman

Co-ordinator Ryan has been working incredibly hard all day inputting your records - 750 of them are now in the New Year Plant Hunt database. 

We have received lists from the most south-westerly parts of these islands. 

At Glengarriff Nature Reserve in Co. Cork, Republic of Ireland, BSBI County Recorder Clare and an "enthusiastic group of adults and children" went out in "full sunshine". (English botanists may want to check this unusual meteorological term in a dictionary). 

Gorse, recorded in many counties.
Here it is in bloom on the Sefton Coast, Lancs.
Image: Mary Dean

They recorded 46 species in flower, including two local specialities, Strawberry Tree and naturalised Fuchsia, neither of which was in flower for last year's Plant Hunt.  

On Guernsey, George Garnett braved outrageous winds to record any plants managing to flower and, like the fine young scientist he is, provided evidence - he videod the wind whipping some tussocks around - it was scary! Check out George's Twitter feed if you want to see the video clip.

In Wales, Prof John Warren braved rain to record 27 species blooming in Aberystwyth before the weather got the better of him while BSBI Welsh Officer Polly Spencer-Vellacott and her team got 57 in North Wales. 

Ivy Broomrape in Somerset
Image: Helena Crouch

On the Sefton Coast (Lancs.), Mary and Rod enjoyed good weather and their list includes Gorse (above), while over in Co. Durham, Phil Gates spotted a population of more than 50 Cowslip plants and one of them was in flower (below). Helena Crouch and the Somerset Rare Plants group sent in a list of 65 species, including Ivy broomrape Orobanche hederae.

In Cambridgeshire, Jon Shanklin saw 39 species in bloom on a walk near Grantchester Meadows (half were in the nearby churchyard) and Chris Preston recorded 53 species from the "uber-ordinary streets" near where he lives in Cambridge.

A few very experienced botanists have been a bit naughty, nonchalantly asking if it's ok to include sporulating ferns on their lists. 


I suspect they are just teasing - they will be well aware that ferns produce spores but they don't flower, which is kind of a pre-requisite for inclusion in a hunt for plants in flower! You don't fool me for a minute Dr Trevor Dines! Or you, Eyebright expert Chris Metherell, but a good list all the same from you and your team up in the wintry wilds of Northumberland.  

Cowslip blooming in Co. Durham
Image: Phil Gates

From Scotland, records are in from Moray (eight species flowering, seen by first time Plant Hunter Ian), from Fife where Stuart found one bedraggled daisy, and several lists from Edinburgh, where Jim and his wife got 14 species including Hoary Mustard Hirschfeldia incana. 

It's unusually far north for this wool-alien, which hasn't been recorded in the area for over 30 years - this record will make a great new square on the plant's distribution map here! 

The image below left demonstrates how Jim took a really good look at this plant to make sure the ID was correct. I think he deserves some kind of prize for this ;-)

Jim checked various key characters to be sure of
his ID of Hirschfeldia incana
Image: Jim Gardner

Many people who would probably not consider themselves botanists have tweeted about the flowers they noticed as they walked the dog or parked the car at the supermarket. 

Some have mused on whether those plants are always in bloom around now and maybe they just haven't noticed before. Or wondered why something grows in one place and not another. And so another botanist is born...

Many of you are recording Yarrow in flower.
This one blooming at RSPB Minsmere 2/1/2016
Image: Anna Saltmarsh

It was my day to head out and enjoy a Plant Hunt in Leicester city centre with eight fellow members of the BSBI VC55 group. We followed the same route as in previous years and found 61 species or hybrids in bloom, mostly at the first (more recreational) of three urban sites and in the streets between. 

Our two usually reliable brownfield sites offered a valuable demonstration of ecological succession, one having scrubbed over (no human intervention) and one desolate (too much human intervention!) 

But everybody had a great time and my deepest thanks go to Ian Denholm, who stepped in to man the New Year Plant Hunt virtual desk alongside Ryan this afternoon, giving me a rare chance to do some actual field botany - thanks Ian!

We're at the halfway point now - let's hope tomorrow dawns fair for all our New Year Plant Hunters!