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New Year Plant Hunting in Britain and Ireland

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FrazerHenderson:
To all Rock Gardeners will you be in Britain or Ireland at the New Year? If so, then here's a way to embrace winter's beauty, learn more about our wonderful wildflowers and make a difference to our knowledge and understanding of climate change.

The New Year Plant Hunt is a remarkable citizen science venture that unveils winter's floral secrets and sheds light on climate change. And it's also great fun.

Warmer winters may be changing the flowering times of plants but help is needed to track this phenomenon.  Perhaps surprisingly, many plants are still flowering in midwinter. Many of these are widespread, common and easy to identify, and armed with a handy spotter sheet to help identification everyone, including total beginners, can recognise at least the top 20 species recorded in previous years.

Interested? It’s easy to take part. During the four days around New Year, 30th December - 2nd January, take a leisurely walk outdoors, noting wild flowers in bloom. Then submit your finds via an online form and contribute to vital climate research.

You can register now at bsbi.org/new-year-plant-hunt

Start 2024 by joining the journey to uncover nature's response to our changing world.

Redmires:
Thanks for  posting this. I didn't know about it, but will certainly take part.  I'm also going to pass the link on to a couple of people I think will be interested.

FrazerHenderson:
I undertook a local walk today as part of the BSBI Plant Hunt and only saw, in three hours, Bellis perennis in flower!

However, I did find a large patch of Diphasiastrum alpinum (Alpine Clubmoss) which was more than adequate compensation.

Redmires:
I wasn't out for as long as you, but my only flowering plant was a very anomalous Anthriscus sylvestris. I've been walking more than usual this year thanks to a knee injury that limits how much I can run and the only compensation has been that I've paid much more attention to the plants along my routes.  When you posted about the survey I thought I might manage 3 or 4 species, as there were still Geranium robertianum, Lamium album and some very small Silene dioica flowers to be seen on one of my regular routes, but by Christmas they'd all given up and I didn't even see a dandelion in flower - and that's usually the best bet for flowers at this time of year. No catkins yet and Ficaria verna leaves are only just beginning to emerge in one or two places.

FrazerHenderson:
I also undertook a walk on New Year's day across a couple of former coal/shale bings (only two flowering plants - Gorse and Daisy) and then a shoreline walk on the 2 Jan (managed three species Gorse, Daisy and Dandelion) - some folk in the south of England recorded 100 flowering species!!!!

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