Scottish Botanists' Conference 2024
*NEW* The 2024 Scottish Botanists' Conference was held at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh on Saturday 2nd November, with a record 220 participants from across Scotland and beyond! Visit the Scottish Botanists' Conference page to find out more about this year's conference, view the programme here, and catch up with the exhibits and workshop handouts online.
Conference goers enjoyed a wide range of talks, including updates on conservation initiatives for threatened species such as Small Cow-wheat, One-flowered Wintergreen and Twinflower, a groundbreaking approach to willow and pondweed identification using genetic barcoding, a year in the life of a mountain botanist, a novel approach to Giant Hogweed control using sheep grazing, and a guide through the curious tale of the invasive Rhododendron ponticum and just why it does so well in Scotland.
This year the ever-popular mini-workshops included Eyebright identification, ferns for beginners, how to take photos for Bramble identification, an introduction to Sphagnum bog-mosses, getting the most out of your smartphone for plant photography, and how to use the new BSBI recording app.
Training workshops 2024
Our BSBI training workshop programme for 2024 included the following
- Learn to identify wildflower families in Dunfermline (18th May) or Fort William (27th July)
- Start to Identify Grasses at the Falls of Clyde (22nd June)
- Sort out your Sedges and Rushes at the Forest of Ae, Dumfriesshire (13th July)
- Start to identify composite flowers (the daisy family) in Inverness (10th Aug)
- Get stuck into Ferns for Complete and Utter Beginners at Arrochar (17th Aug)
- Get started with Plant ID for Habitat Surveys at Dumyat (31st Aug)
- Training for Trainers workshop at RBGE (5th October)
We also ran a variety of field meetings this year, including several aimed at beginners. Keep an eye out over for the 2025 programme of workshops and field meetings, to be released this winter!
Looking for more resources? We've built up a great catalogue of training videos! For example, if you are interested in grasses view this excellent introduction to Grass ID for beginners from last year.
Latest News
*NEW* The 2024 Scottish Newsletter is out now, featuring fascinating articles, information on upcoming field meetings, vice-county reports and much more! You can read it online or download it as a PDF, and find out more below. Congratulations to Editor John Crossley on a great issue!
*NEW* The Committee for Scotland are planning to create a series of online ‘leaflets’ providing information about plants that can be seen in the wild at sites visited by tourists. Find out more and get involved at Wild Plants on the Scottish Tourist Trail.
Last year’s Scottish Botanists’ Conference was held at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh on Saturday 4th November 2023. A diverse programme included talks on Plant Atlas 2020 and its impact, rare plant translocations for conservation and the recently updated Caledonian Pinewood Inventory, along with hands-on identification and training workshops. All sessions are now available to view on the BSBI YouTube channel, and you can view many of the exhibits and resources from the day here.
The Botanical Society of Scotland ran a two-day Urban Biodiversity Conference on Thursday 21st and Friday 22nd September, at the Royal Society of Edinburgh. Building on their long-running Urban Flora of Scotland project, this conference had a packed programme with a fantastic line-up of speakers, including two of our very own vice-county recorders, looking at a wide range of aspects of the urban flora! Talks from the conference will be made available online soon...
Head to the Plant Atlas 2020 in Scotland page now to read the summary report Britain's Changing Flora and get the headline findings for Scotland, and explore the online Plant Atlas! The Scotland launch of Plant Atlas 2020 was held at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh on 9th March 2023, and we were joined by Lorna Slater MSP, Minister for Green Skills, Biodiversity and Circular Economy, to celebrate the fantastic work of the Scottish botanical recording community! You can watch the Scotland launch event in full on our YouTube channel.
Scotland Officer
Matt Harding has taken over from Jim McIntosh as Scotland Officer in December 2022.
You can now read an interview with Matt on the BSBI News & Views blog.
Address: Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, 20a Inverleith Row, Edinburgh EH3 5LR
Email: matt.harding@bsbi.org
Scottish HectAd Rare Plant Project
Get involved with our project to refind and re-record rare plant populations in Scotland - the Scottish HectAd Rare Plant Project!
County webpages
We now have a County page for all Scottish Counties! They are a great source of information on local botany including local groups, field meetings, checklists, floras, Rare Plant Registers, reports and more. See the local botany page.
Growing Identiplant in Scotland
Identiplant, the online training course for beginners in serious botany, is now run by BSBI and we're keen to increase the numbers of students - and the tutors to support them - across Scotland.
Are you based in Scotland and keen to support beginner botanists? Would you like to know more about becoming an Identiplant tutor? BSBI and The Conservation Volunteers (TCV) have partnered to establish an Identiplant Hub in Stirling, and we held a Identiplant workshop for prospective tutors there on Sunday 17th September.
See this poster for more information, and email identiplant@bsbi.org to find out more.
Scottish Newsletter
The 2024 Scottish Newsletter is out now, featuring fascinating articles, information on upcoming field meetings, vice-county reports and much more! You can read it online or download it as a PDF.
Find out about a new site for Carex norvegica (Close-headed Alpine-sedge), the impact of Chalara ash die-back in Rassal Ashwood, the search for Saxifraga hirculus (Marsh Saxifrage) in the Ochil Hills, observations of Dryopteris aemula (Hay-scented Buckler-fern), Neottia nidus-avis (Bird's-nest Orchid) and Viscum album (Mistletoe), and the Scottish Bramble Project, plus other great articles!
Congratulations to Editor John Crossley for a fantastic newsletter!
You can also read the 2023 Scottish Newsletter here, and for back-issues see the Scottish Newsletter page. Our thanks go to Faith Anstey for helming the 2023 edition, and to Angus Hannah, the Editor for six years to 2022.
Spring Conference
We joined forces with botanists across Britain and Ireland for the 2022 Spring Conference in March. There was a huge variety of interesting talks - all recorded and now available on the BSBI Spring Conference playlist. Of particular interest to Scotland is a talk on Conserving Oblong Woodsia.
Annual Reports
Every year we ask County Recorders to summarise the most interesting and exciting news from their Counties in less than 250 words. You can see a collation of their 2022 reports in the Scottish Newsletter above, and individual reports appear on County pages with additional photographs and links.
New to Recording?
- How to use the BSBI Database
- How to find, prepare and complete recording cards
- Advice on Buying and Using GPSs
Or view Recording for Beginners 2020.
Get involved with the Urban Flora Project in 2023 - a project to record flowering plants in our urban areas, initiated by our friends in the Botanical Society of Scotland.
BSBI Plant ID online workshop
Aileen Meek led an excellent workshop on Identifying Wildflower Families for beginners in 2022. 46 participated in the live event, but over 3500 have now viewed the Identifying Wildflower Families webinar making it one of the most popular in the BSBI Training playlist.
Fern Field Meetings
All BSBI members are very welcome to participate in the British Pteridological Society's Scottish meetings. Click the link to see the programme and get in touch with the BPS leaders, if interested.
Scottish Local Groups
Get in touch with your local network or group to find out about local botanical field meetings:
- Dumfriesshire run by Chris Miles
- East Lothian - Marion Moir
- Fife - Sandy Edwards
- Highlands - Inverness Botany Group
- Kirkcudbrightshire - David Hawker
- Lanarkshire - Michael Philip
- Moray - Ian Green
- Perthshire - Perthshire Society of Natural Sciences
- North Ebudes - Skye Botany Group - Stephen Bungard
- Renfrewshire - Michael Philip
- Dunbartonshire area - Michael Philip
- West Lothian - Jay Mackinnon
- Stirlingshire - Matt Harding
Natural History Societies in Berwick, Dundee, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Lochaber and Paisley also arrange field meetings that include botany.
