BSBI offers a range of in-house training options to help you learn more about plant ID, from online webinars, delivered live or by video, and focused on particular plant groups, to national field meetings with a training theme.
Videos of many of our training webinars - most of which are free for everyone to view and enjoy - are uploaded afterwards to our BSBI YouTube channel.
Grasses: For our annual programmes of field and online training webinars in grass ID please visit the Irish Grasslands Project page where you will also find links to videos of the webinars.
Aquatics: For our annual programmes of field and online training webinars in aquatics and charophytes, please visit the Aquatic Plant Project where you will also find links to videos of the webinars.
Dandelions: In 2020, ecologist and BSBI member Josh Styles hosted a free online introductory course to dandelion identification which has since attracted thousands of participants. You can view Josh's slides here: An Introduction to Dandelions or watch the presentation on YouTube. For more ID resources please visit our dandelions webpage.
Ferns: Our hour-long Fern ID online course, previously only available to BSBI members, is now available to everyone and is still offered at the bargain price of only £5 per person. Taught by Josh Styles, the course aims to get you started with fern ID. Find out more and register for the online course via our fern identification page which also has links to some free fern ID resources from BSBI and our sister society, the British Pteridological Society.
Learning more in the field: Every year (Covid permitting) we organise a programme of national field meetings and indoor events across Britain and Ireland under themes such as training or recording. The training meetings are led by experienced BSBI members/ tutors to help you sharpen your identification skills. Some are aimed at specialists, some at beginners. The programme for the year ahead is posted here in late November.
Plant ID and botany courses from other providers: for courses ranging from short introductory courses aimed at beginners, right through to full-time BSc and MSc courses at British and Irish universities, please visit our training courses page. For grants to help pay for training courses, please visit our grants page.