National Plant Monitoring Scheme: Pete Stroh's plots

Bur Chervil in Hunts.
Image: Pete Stroh

Are you out surveying any plots this year for the National Plant Monitoring Scheme, or the NPMS as it's known to it's friends?

BSBI Scientific Officer Pete Stroh (of England Red List fame) emailed to say that he was "out recording my NPMS square yesterday and found lots of Bur Chervil Anthriscus caucalis and Shepherd's-needle Scandix pecten-veneris on a walk between two of my NPMS plots. 

"The former is rare in the county [Ed.: Pete was out near Little Saughton, Huntingdonshire]; the latter is extremely rare - this is the first county record since 2001 and in a new grid square for the species!"

Shepherd's-needle in Hunts.
Image: Pete Stroh

If you are recording for the NPMS this year, please send us photos of the plants you are seeing (either in your plots or walking between them) and if it's your second year of monitoring your plots, why not let us know how you are getting on with your repeat surveys? 

If you haven't yet signed up for the NPMS, you can find out more here and don't worry if you can't identify the rare plants that Pete spotted - you can opt to do the NPMS survey at three different levels, so you can still take part, even if you can only identify a few easy plants. And you get a really helpful free ID key to help you do this! 

In case Pete's happy finds give you the wrong idea - the purpose of the NPMS isn't to find rarities, it's to get a clearer idea of how habitats and plant distributions are changing across the country, warts and all. 

Shepherd's-needle in Hunts.
Image: Pete Stroh

Some people who usually do their plant-spotting in well-managed, floriferous nature reserves have complained that their squares lack any species-rich habitat in which to set up plots; others have struggled, once plots are marked out, to find more than half a dozen wildflowers from the list of indicator species.  

But every plot surveyed will help us build up a clearer picture of how our wider countryside is changing - and if populations of once-familiar wildflowers really are in decline across the country, then data collected by thousands of members of the public will, for the first time, provide incontrovertible and much-needed evidence of this. 

So please take a look at our NPMS page here to find out more about why the scheme is so important, how easy it is to take part and how much help and support you get, from local mentors to videos explaining how to set up your survey plots. Then, if you'd like to receive a survey pack and browse the interactive map to find a square near you, it only takes a minute to register your interest. 

Bristol botanist on BBC Springwatch Unsprung

STOP PRESS Just in from Tim Rich: 

"Libby Houston will be on BBC2 Springwatch Unsprung at 6:30 tonight.

"She'll be hanging off a rope in the Avon Gorge and talking about some of the rare plants, I think including Bristol Rockcress, and again on the main Springwatch programme later at 8.00 pm.

"Here she is (on right) with the Whitebeam named after her a few years ago."

Thanks to Tim for the tip-off so News & Views readers can enjoy the rare sight of a botanist on the telly! 

Mooney Goes Wild over BSBI Rough Crew and Dublin Bay Biosphere

It's here at last, the podcast we've all been waiting for! 

Last month, 'Mooney Goes Wild', Ireland's top national radio wildlife programme, visited Dublin Bay Biosphere where they recorded an interview with Dr Maria Long, BSBI Irish Officer, and Dr Jenni Roche of Dublin Bay Biosphere. Also in attendance were members of the Dublin area local botany group and members of Ireland's famous 'Rough Crew'. 

The interview was broadcast on Sunday and you can now download the podcast from this page. The section starts at 00.36.35 and Maria comes on at 00.39.35.

Maria really communicates what BSBI does and why, how we map changes in plant distributions, the role of BSBI's volunteer recorders, the interaction between plant genetics and field ID, and most importantly, how much fun botany is!  

Last word on the BSBI Summer Meeting

Now that people have dispersed home after the BSBI Summer Meeting - and before we go any further, I just have to share this view, taken by Lydia at 5.35 am on Monday, the final morning, looking out from FSC Blencathra where the meeting was based...

Viola canina at Ullswater - Aira Point
Image: Fred Rumsey

So now that people are home again, they're uploading their images from the meeting and the thank you emails and congratulatory messages must be flooding in to Jon Shanklin's Inbox. 

But where is our man of the moment, who organised a meeting which attracted participants from Perthshire to the south coast of England? 

What do you do to recover from the intensity of organising a five-day national botanical recording meeting?

Yup, you guessed it - you go off botanising and recording somewhere else! 

Look out, botanists below!
Image: Fred Rumsey

So here's a brief report from Jon about his post-Summer Meeting recovery day, accompanied by some final images. 

Jon says: "Well I did have a nice relaxing day at the seaside!  For most of the day the sun blazed down, but a cooling sea breeze made it brilliant weather for botanising. 

I'd originally planned a two tetrad route, but the first was so nice that I spent most of the day there. The scenery was rather different to Blencathra and so were the plants. 

A very pink Oxalis acetosella at Bassenthwaite
Image: Lydia Koelmans

"The area I chose was one of the few Flintshire ones on the Dee estuary that was short of records - not any more. A large part of the tetrad includes the site of the former Point of Ayr colliery, which has been bulldozed flat. 

It therefore has a range of habitats and I found quite a few plants that I'd never seen before, such as Trifolium ornithopodioides, Ruppia maritima and Anchusa azurea".

A possible venue for a future BSBI field meeting? 

And well done Jon for filling in another recording card on the way home - we need all those records for Atlas 2020! 

I wonder what Jon will do when he does finally make it back to Cambridge - a little recording perhaps?

Many thanks to Jon for all his hard work organising and to Fred and Lydia for the images on this page, all taken during the Summer Meeting.  

I'll leave you with a final image from Fred (on right) of the botanists wending their way home after one of many successful fieldtrips on the BSBI Summer Meeting - until next year! 

BSBI Summer Meeting: the final day

Botanists at the Summer Meeting
Image: Dave Barlow

Here's the final report from this year's BSBI Annual Summer Meeting and it sounds as though it's been a great success. Three cheers for Organiser and Field Meetings Secretary Jon Shanklin, who found time to send through daily updates as well as co-ordinating everything on the ground.

"The final day - numbers had dropped, but there was still a good crowd at breakfast, many saying goodbye for now. Where were the posters? - in the studio (thanks Geoffrey). Had anyone left anything in the communal rooms - yes -  I'd left my box of id books!  

A Dog-Violet spotted during the Summer Meeting
Image: Natalie Harmsworth

So finally time for a bit of morning recording. I had two passengers to take to Penrith, and Phil Brown wanted to see a bit more, so we went to a square half way there. We did part of the village first, picking up several aliens, then along a green lane with a view to making a circular walk. 

Surprisingly there were quite a few introduced species along the track, but we then spied a small old quarry in a field. Phil vaulted over the drystone wall, but the rest of us went a bit further down the lane where the wall had collapsed to give easy access. 

The quarry had lots of nice limestone grassland species, including Rock Rose and Small Scabious. A bit further down the track we had Vaccinium myrtillus, so clearly the geology was quite complex. Around a corner we found a marshy area, then further up a hill remains of a lime kiln and pits. 

Botanists heading home from a
Summer Meeting fieldtrip
Image: Dave Barlow

This seemed a good place for lunch, but Phil hadn't brought any, so was sent off to explore another promising marshy area. By the time we had finished he came back with a handful of goodies, such as Menyanthes trifoliata and Vaccinium oxycoccos. 

Given the time it had taken to get this far, it seemed prudent to return directly if the passengers were to catch the train, however the return was far faster, and we had time to walk down a lane to a beck, where Phil grabbed a new plant for him - Berula erecta. We weren't expecting much from the tetrad and it just shows that even something that looks pretty dull on the map can have a host of nice species.

The workshops were very popular
Image: Dave Barlow

We made it to the station with enough time to spare, and then I journeyed back to Chester for a bit of relaxation (probably a spot of gardening and some more local recording in Flintshire or Denbighshire), before completing the journey back to Cambridge.

For me it has been an exhausting event, with barely a moment to relax, so I never saw the Red Squirrels that live at Blencathra, and only had a ten minute walk round the grounds this morning (but I did add 10 species to the site list that we had been compiling). We were lucky with the weather, with only one wet morning. We had some great scenery as a back-drop to our botanising, and for many a host of new plants to see. 

Leaving behind some great scenery!
Image: Natalie Harmsworth

Everyone learned a lot, from beginners to experts (I must read the keys more thoroughly!) and we all enjoyed the experience. Thanks to all for coming, and for making it such a successful event. A full report will appear in the BSBI Yearbook (LM: this is available to BSBI members only).

Hopefully many members will come to other BSBI field meetings over the summer, to the AEM at Wallingford in the autumn and to next years ASM, which might be in North Wales. If you do, you will meet a great crowd of people and have a really enjoyable time".

BSBI Summer Meeting: Day 4

Botanists at Sale Fell, Cumbria
Image: Natalie Harmsworth 

Things are getting serious at FSC Blencathra - there's some serious recording going on! Here's the latest daily report by Jon Shanklin from the BSBI Summer Meeting: 

"Although a few spots of rain fell as we left Blencathra, that was it for the day and everyone enjoyed a fine day in the lake district. Once again groups of three or four scattered to the four corners in search of records for Atlas 2020.  

"My group of four headed for Rowrah, an under-recorded area since 2000, despite containing a National Nature Reserve with one of the finest hay meadows in Cumbria. 

A "purple patch": Early Purple Orchids
BSBI Summer Meeting 2016
Image: Anne Middleton

We started in the village, where there were some interesting garden escapes including the pretty Alchemilla conjuncta, although the owner of the property that it had escaped from thought it was becoming a bit of a pest! 

"We then headed for cycleway 71, which ran along a section of disused railway. The area of the old railway sidings distracted us, and we found a good selection of plants on the damp ground. In fact it distracted us so much that this was our lunch spot!  

"Continuing down the track we entered a permissive path through part of an old quarry, containing delightful woodland with trees draped in byrophytes. The rest of the quarry was guarded by a barbed wire fence and a moat, and clearly something very interesting grew there, but sadly we couldn't get in. 

We couldn't quite get Orchis mascula into our initial monad, so it became the first plant for the new monad. 

Botanists in a huddle over a plant ID.
Image: Dave Barlow

"A bit further along the cycle path we spotted the leaves of an umbellifer, but what was it? Nothing immediately came to mind so a leaf was bagged, and its grid reference taken. 

Plants were added to the monad edge, then we back tracked a little into the NNR. Part was rough grassland grazed by Belted Galloway, but sadly only a bit of the hay meadow was in our monad. 

"We recorded our bit, finding three species of Alchemilla. The rest of the NNR was a bit disappointing, though the boundary edge of an ungrazed meadow was more species rich. A few meanders along roads and tracks eventually got us back to the car for the longish drive back to Blencathra and dinner. 

Keying out Luronium in the evening
Image: Anne Middleton

"The post dinner ID session gave us some mundane species such as Arrhenatherum elatius (still vegetative in the lakes), and more interesting ones such as Geum macrophyllum found by another group. At 8:30pm everyone joined together to give some highlights, though there were still a few species to identify. 

The list is a long one, so not for the blog, but memories included the smell of Daucus carota, blue sheets of Viola canina, an Oak covered in epicormic growth like an Ent, a lunch amidst a flock of Oenanthe (so not the plant!) and some of the wonderful mountain scenery. 

Plant ID workshops at the
Summer Meeting were a great hit!
Image: Dave Barlow

"But what of that odd umbellifer? A quick look at the picture book immediately reminded us of Pimpinella, but as the leaflets were very big and the lowest clearly petiolate, possibly Pimpinella major. 

This seemed a bit unlikely for western Cumbria, however reference to the Cumbria Flora revealed "a possible 19th century record from near Arlecdon". Rowrah is just a kilometre from Arlecdon! Phil Brown is clearly going to have to have a closer look in a few weeks time when hopefully it will be in flower.

Tomorrow is our last day in this lovely part of England and it promises to be fine. Some people are driving straight off , but a few are continuing with a morning recording before heading for home."

BSBI Summer Meeting: Day 3

The view from FSC Blencathra
Image: Natalie Harmsworth

The latest on-the-spot report from the BSBI Summer Meeting is just in from Jon Shanklin:

"Day three dawned with typical lake district weather - grey and wet, however the rain had stopped by the time we finished breakfast and headed off in different directions. Some went to places chosen as having few records, others went to interesting places that still needed more records. Where they went I know not, but it seems that all came back happy with the days efforts, though for many there was more to come in the after dinner ID sessions that are an important part of the event.

  

FSC Blencathra, base for BSBI's Summer Meeting
Image: Natalie Harmsworth

"My own group headed for the little village of Tallentire, where we briefly joined Lynne Farrell's group to decide the strategy. We agreed to do separate monads and meet back for lunch at 1pm, though of course that didn't quite go to plan. My team headed roughly east and started recording when we passed a mini village green. 

"At about this point the first drops of rain fell, so the choice of waterproof paper for the morning recording seemed a good one (Jon is after all a meteorologist, so he had warned people). 

"Our first oddity was a crucifer growing on a wall, which didn't get identified until later, but turned out to be perhaps our best find of the day - Draba muralis. For the most part after that there was nothing eventful - the odd lost cow being returned to its pasture, a trailer of sheep going past, and a few more plants being crossed off the list. 

View from FSC Blencathra
Image: Anne Middleton

"By the time we were nearing the monad boundary the rain had stopped, with patches of blue sky, and although we pressed on for a short while looking for a lunch spot, it was quite windy, so we back-tracked to the shelter of a quarry that we had decided to do on our way back. 

"This proved to be a nice calcareous site, with Plantago media, Poterium sanguisorba and what we identified on the way back as Scabiosa columbaria amongst others. It was also a good spot for lunch and we phoned a message to the other group that we wouldn't be meeting up, so they should continue with their monad and then go to the southern part of the other tetrad. It turned out that although they never received the message, they did exactly as instructed - telepathy works!

Mystery plant spotted during Day 2:
can you tell what it is?
Image: Dave Barlow 

"After lunch we continued east to record the monad, adding a few species, but nothing special. Returning to the quarry area, we tried the east side of the road, where a young lad had been practicing climbing the 3m high crag. This had more calcareous plants, including something with leaves that didn't look right for the Vaccinium seen earlier and was quickly tied down to Genista tinctoria. 

"The map showed another quarry across the fields so we thought we might as well give it a look. Somewhat to our surprise this turned out to be completely different with Rumex acetosella and Galium saxatile amongst other acid loving plants. 

"As it was now past 4:00pm, we headed west back along the same road towards the cars, and did manage to spot several things we had missed going in the other direction. A final short detour produced a few more species and we got back to the car to find a ticket on the windscreen - a message from the other group stating their plan.

Another amazing view from FSC Blencathra
Image: Natalie Harmsworth

"Back at FSC Blencathra there was a little ID work before dinner and maps for Sunday were tabled and mostly ignored as the groups decided where they really wanted to go. Later further ID sessions grouped people together working on all the puzzling specimens. 

"For some specimens it was a question of believing the key, for others a question of reading the key, and for quite a lot asking Fred Rumsey and HelenaCrouch. Eventually all was done, record cards updated and time to relax or write the blog...

"Sunday promises to be fine. Some groups are staying close to Blencathra, others going to designated squares. There will be more interesting finds, and quite a few more dots on the species distribution maps for Cumbria".