Early Dog-violet spotted by BSBI trustee Dr Trevor Dines on his Hunt in North Wales  The sun has set on the fourth and final day of BSBI's fourteenth New Year Plant Hunt so it's time to say a huge thank you to everyone who took part and to take a bit of an overview of how things have gone so far.  The Hunt has been hugely popular, from the very first record which pinged in just after midnight on Sunday, to Olly Lynch Milner's Hunt by torch light tonight - he didn't think he'd have time to do a Hunt but in the end he just couldn't resist... The Results website shows that more ..read more

Day Three of this year's New Year Plant Hunt and with the Met Office forecasting heavy rain and strong winds on the way, the race was on to get out and hunt for wild or naturalised plants in bloom across Britain and Ireland. By the end of the day, the Results website was showing more than 15,000 records from 1,195 separate Hunts, and 546 different species recorded so far. Matt Harding, BSBI Scotland Officer, led a Hunt in Stirling and has sent a short report and some tips for Plant Hunters, but first I'd like to feature a couple of inspirational young botanists who are causing quite a stir. O ..read more

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 ha ..read more

Today was the first day of the BSBI's fourteenth New Year Plant Hunt, when thousands of botanists head out to look for wild or naturalised plants in bloom in midwinter.  It was wonderful to see plant records flooding in to our Results website, from plant hunters across Britain and Ireland: whether 48 species recorded on Jersey (the southernmost Hunt of the day) or seven records from chillier Inverness (the northernmost).  As always, coastal areas yielded more species: 81 species, including a gorgeous Fumitory (below left) recorded by the Norfolk Flora Group Team B, current ..read more

We have just published the latest issue of British & Irish Botany, the BSBI's online, Open Access scientific journal. This new issue of the journal, with Stuart Desjardins (University of Leicester) now firmly bedded-in as Editor-in-Chief, features six papers which we are confident will be of interest to botanists across Britain and Ireland. Sambucus canadensis x nigra Image: A. Amphlett First up is a paper by Andy Amphlett, joint BSBI County Recorder for Easterness, of a hybrid Elder reported from four locations in northern Scotland. There are no other confirme ..read more

A new book about Britain's rare wild flowers is always going to be of interest to plant-lovers, especially when the book is written by one of our top natural history authors who is also a BSBI member - and when fellow members can look forward to a hefty discount when they order their copy! Peter Marren has more than twenty nature books under his belt, numerous articles in broadsheets and a regular column in British Wildlife magazine. He has been a BSBI member since 1975, and in 1999 he won the 'Presidents' Award' for his book Britain's Rare Flowers; the award is made each year by the Presiden ..read more

Sea Rocket Cakile maritima in Cornwall Image: David Steere  For the last two years, we have launched our autumn membership special offer by saying that 'in a rapidly changing world, our wild plants have never been more in need of the support, understanding and appreciation that BSBI is uniquely placed to provide'.  You won’t be surprised to hear that we’ve seen even more evidence over the past year about how our climate is changing: thousands of you went out recording for the 2024 New Year Plant Hunt and found a total of 629 different species across Britain and Ireland ..read more

Micheline enjoying some urban botany  on a post-industrial site in Wales Image: L. Marsh In Part One of our interview with BSBI President Micheline Sheehy Skeffington, we heard about her early days botanising and studying in Dublin, in France and then in the Indonesian tropical rainforest, but by 1985, with her PhD under her belt, she was back in Ireland as lecturer in plant ecology in the Botany Department of then-named University College Galway, UCG (now University of Galway). LM: So Micheline, what happened next? MSS: On returning from my year in Indonesia, I resumed my lectu ..read more

This is the third and final report by BSBI trustee Richard Allanach from the XX International Botanical Congress in Madrid, following on from Days 1&2 and Days 3&4.  Over to Richard: "Amongst the five lectures and 54 symposia delegates could attend on Thursday there was still plenty of opportunity for botanists to meet and plan future activity. Current and future BSBI Presidents Micheline Sheehy Skeffington and Paul Ashton met with Xavier Pico of our sister society, the Spanish Botanical Society (SEBOT), to discuss future collaboration. Xavier is lucky enough to work in the Donan ..read more

Following on from his first report from the XX International Botanical Congress in Madrid, we have another report from BSBI trustee, Richard Allanach. But first, a correction: we said that there were three people in the BSBI delegation: BSBI President Dr Micheline Sheehy Skeffington, Richard himself and fellow trustee Dr Sandy Knapp OBE, but Richard tells me that Prof Pete Hollingsworth CBE, Director of Science at RBG Edinburgh (and also a BSBI trustee), and Prof Paul Ashton, Professor of Botany at Edge Hill University and BSBI President-elect, are also attending the Congress. It's great ..read more