The call has gone out for the fourth successive year: British and Irish plant-hunters are encouraged to get out over the holiday in their local area and record which wild or naturalised plants are in flower over New Year. In order to accommodate bad weather, visiting relatives and hangovers, our planthunters can select any three-hour period between the 1 st and 4 th of January – it doesn’t have to be
New Year’s Day!
Last year, we received reports from across Britain and Ireland – from Guernsey to Orkney and the
Outer Hebrides, Norfolk to Co. Waterford via Merseyside – giving us a picture of which wildflowers were in bloom at New Year.
More information about the 221 species recorded in flower during last year’s Plant Hunt can be seen here and we also re-analysed the data here to see if plants in flower were early Spring flowers, or
Autumn-flowering species still in bloom.
This year, records can be emailed to nyplanthunt@bsbi.org where a team of BSBI botanists, headed by Dr Tim Rich, will be waiting to collate them; we can also help people identify any wildflowers they are unsure of. We are only asking people to record wild plants and not garden plants, unless they are naturalised – that is, established and surviving in the wild without human intervention.
Tim said “The New Year Plant Hunt started as a bit of fun to blow the cobwebs away on New Year’s
Day in 2012. We were surprised to find so many wild flowers blooming in the middle of the winter but now with lots of other botanists joining in over the years we are beginning to see patterns. As
2014 is the warmest year on record, we expect a bumper crop this New Years Day.”
BSBI President Ian Denholm will be out in his local patch seeing what’s in flower, and encourages all plant-lovers to join this year’s Plant Hunt. Ian said “Records of which plants are in flower at this time of year fill an important gap in our knowledge of plant phenology and how this is affected by both climatic conditions and recent weather. There are usually some surprises in terms of which species are able to produce flowers at this time of year. It is also interesting to see variation across Britain and Ireland, and we look forward to seeing how this year’s tally will compare with previous years”
.
Records and photographs will also be shared on our Facebook page and on Twitter and on our News
& Views blog so you can see how we are getting on. Contact your local botany group or BSBI County
Recorder here to find out what is happening locally, or email nyplanthunt@bsbi.org for more info.
Photo opportunity: botanists will be out recording plants at various locations around the country.
Contact BSBI Publicity & Outreach Officer Louise Marsh for more information:

Email: louise.marsh@bsbi.org Telephone: 07971 2972 529
Interview opportunities:
Contact Plant Hunt Co-ordinator Tim Rich. Email: tim_rich@sky.com
Contact BSBI President Ian Denholm. Email: i.denholm@herts.ac.uk