254 people booked to attend the 2022 British & Irish Botanical Conference, held at the Natural History Museum, London, on Saturday 19th November. The programme featured a 45-minute keynote from Chris Preston followed by eight 15-minute talks, seven 1-minute flash talks, two guided tours of the world-famous Herbarium and 24 exhibits. If you weren't able to join us in person, the links below will allow you to enjoy recordings of the talks and check out some of the exhibits.
The Talks
The talks were recorded and the videos are available here:
- How 'natural' are our alien species? – Chris Preston – co-editor, ‘New Atlas of the British & Irish Flora’)
- Plants of the Lizard – Colin French (BSBI County Recorder for West Cornwall)
- Botanical treasures of Somerset – Helena Crouch (BSBI County Recorder for North Somerset)
- Ireland’s flora: a view from the Irish Midlands – Fiona MacGowan (BSBI joint County Recorder for Co. Laois)
- Orchids and other wild plants of Shetland – Jon Dunn (author ‘Orchid Summer’) - video to follow
- Protecting the mountain plants of Wales – Robbie Blackhall-Miles (Mountain plant conservationist)
- Plants and planning – do plant records pack a punch? – Tristan Norton (Hampshire County Council ecologist)
- Forensic botany – Mark Spencer (BSBI County Recorder for Middlesex and forensic botanist, author ‘Murder Most Florid’)
- Plants, conservation and me – Lynne Farrell (outgoing BSBI President)
The Exhibits
Our 24 exhibits included some, e.g John Poland's Vegetative Plant ID Quiz, Brian Laney's Big Wildflower Seed Giveaway and Linda Pitkin's botanical greetings cards, which cannot be shared with you in electronic form - you really had to be there on the day to enjoy these exhibits! But where it proved possible to upload an online version of an exhibit, we have done so. The listing below also provides links to videos of the 1-minute flash talks offered by some exhibitors, and provides links where possible to websites, social media accounts and contact details.
Rachel Murphy - National Plant Monitoring Scheme (NPMS): Monitoring the health of UK habitats through citizen science - Flash Talk - Email - On Twitter - On Instagram
Leif Bersweden - Where the Wildflowers Grow: my botanical journey through Britain and Ireland - Flash Talk - Email - On Twitter - On Instagram
Meng Lu - Genomics of hybridisation in British native flowering plants - Flash Talk - Email - On Twitter
Charlie Fothergill - Meadow Monitoring in Derbyshire - Flash Talk - Email - On Instagram
Lucy Cornwall - Plant diversity and soil carbon in woodlands - Email Identiplant
Alison Evans - Morphology, ploidy level, and genetic markers of taxa in the Dryopteris affinis (Lowe) Fraser-Jenk. complex in Britain and Ireland - Flash Talk - Email
Heather Marples - Back On Our Map: Reintroducing Rare Plants into South Cumbria - Flash Talk - Email - On Twitter
Jake Dalzell - Plants and plant communities of Strangford Lough islands - Flash Talk - Email - Blog - Webpage - On Twitter
David Barden - Writing a 'site flora' with broad appeal: an experience from Glamorgan - Email - Glamorgan county page
Rebekka Eriksen Ween, Norwegian Botanical Society - Young Botanist: Empowering Youth to Become Plant Ambassadors - Flash Talk - Email
Jill Sutcliffe - Teesdale's Special Flora: places, plants and people - Webpage - Email
Susan Medcalf - Botanical University Challenge - Website - On Twitter
We also exhibited a selection of posters about BSBI projects, activities and resources:
Our first poster sets out How BSBI can help you - firstly as a supporter and then as a member
Our third plant distribution atlas, due out in March 2023 - BSBI Atlas 2020 - more info here.
Results from the New Year Plant Hunt 2014 to 2022. More info here. Email.
Identiplant - now run by BSBI - more info here. Email.
Field Identification Skills Certificates - as of 2023, these will be run by BSBI so look out for more info here.
BSBI grants for training, study and research - don't forget that BSBI grants go live on 1st January each year and you can apply for a grant for any kind of botanical training course, whether run by BSBI or by an external provider. Email.
BSBI Field Meetings 2023 - full details, including booking links, coming soon here. Email the Field Meetings Secretary if you would like to offer to host a field meeting.
BSBI Committee for England - find out more about the Committee's work here, read their newsletter here or contact chair Jonathan Shanklin.
BSBI Photographic Competition - all this year's entries were displayed at the Conference! View them here and visit the Photo Competition page to find out how to enter for 2023. Email.
The Team
Thank you to all our speakers, exhibitors and the team behind the Conference!
A huge thank you to volunteers Andrew, Billy, George, Jodey, Kylie and Ryan from BSBI Events & Comms Committee; staff members Jim, Julia, Louise, Sarah and Tom; and Hon Gen Sec Steve Gater.
Thanks also to our hosts, the Natural History Museum: Sandy Knapp (NHM botanist and BSBI trustee); Esther Murphy (Assistant to the Executive Director of Science at the NHM); Ilya Sayer (NHM AV Technician); John Hunnex, Chris Dixon and Mark Carine (NHM Herbarium).
Finally, thanks to our three session Chairs: Sandy Knapp, Julia Hanmer (BSBI Chief Executive) and Micheline Sheehy Skeffington (incoming BSBI President).
