BSBI Annual General Meeting 2024
Bookings are now open for the BSBI Annual General Meeting (AGM) 2024, which will take place online on Thursday 21st November. The event starts at 6.15pm, with introductory talks by Tim Rich, Michael Philip and Malcolm Macneill, some of the winners of the 2023 Awards for Outstanding Contributions to Botany, and the AGM itself starts at 7.15.
The final agenda and supporting papers will be available soon on the AGM webpage, where you will also be able to see biographies of trustees up for election. If you are one of our growing number of BSBI members, the AGM is your chance to have your say and participate in how the Society is governed, so we hope you will register right now and join us on 21st November. Get ready to nominate fellow members for this year’s Outstanding Contribution to Botany Awards!
Louise Marsh, BSBI Communications Officer
British & Irish Botanical Conference 2024
Bookings opened earlier this month for this year’s British & Irish Botanical Conference, which will take place on Saturday 23rd November at the Natural History Museum, London.
We have a fabulous programme of speakers lined up for you, plus exhibits, flash talks, behind-the-scenes tours of the world-famous Sloane Herbarium and two herbarium-themed workshops - and it’s all free, although as always we welcome donations.
Here’s the booking link and we still have a few exhibitor spaces available, so please book quickly if you would like to offer a poster or some other kind of exhibit about your botanical highlights of the year. Look forward to seeing you on 23rd November.
Louise Marsh, BSBI Communications Officer
Scottish Botanists’ Conference 2024
Places are filling fast for the Scottish Botanists’ Conference 2024, held at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh on Saturday 2nd November, so book your place soon to avoid missing out! The event features a packed programme of talks, mini-workshops and exhibits.
Learn how RBGE are ‘Teaming up science and horticulture to restore the Small Cow-wheat (Melampyrum sylvaticum) in Scotland’, ponder the importance of ‘An Inch of Moss: Learning from the Cairngorms Rare Plants Project about Pinewood Specialists and their Niches’ with Plantlife Scotland, and explore ‘The curious tale of Rhododendron ponticum’ with Dr Richard Milne of University of Edinburgh & BSS.
With eight different mini-workshops also running to help boost your plant identification and recording skills, and an exhibition showcasing current botanical projects, finds and research in Scotland, it promises to be a fantastic day!
Matt Harding, BSBI Scotland Officer
The BSBI Documentation website
The BSBI Documentation website continues to be updated with useful guidance and I encourage all County Recorders (VCRs) to bookmark it. James Drever has recently added a page for VCRs with a list of useful DDb searches, my favourite of which is the VC Checklist search. The iRecord guidance published earlier this year alongside the transfer has hopefully been of good use to VCRs. The site is well worth exploring, and continues to grow and develop.
James Harding-Morris, BSBI Countries Manager
Webinars from the Northern Ireland Botanical Skills Project
Under the banner of our DAERA-funded Botanical Skills Project in Northern Ireland, we have organised a webinar series running from November through to February. The webinars cater to botanists across the skill spectrum, so some may be of interest to you, whereas others may be of more interest to developing botanists in your network. Each webinar is on a Tuesday evening at 7pm for around an hour, and we intend to record them for the BSBI YouTube channel so they can be viewed by anyone who couldn’t join them live.
The talk series, and links to book, are:
- 5th November - Getting started with Plant and Leaf Anatomy
- 12th November - Getting started with Flower Anatomy
- 19th November - Lepidoptera and Plants
- 26th November - Getting started with Plant Keys
- 3rd December - Dryopteris in Northern Ireland (and further afield)
- 10th December - An Introduction to the Equisetum of Fermanagh, Ireland, and the UK
- 14th January - Grasses, Sedges and Rushes for Absolute Beginners
- 21st January - Grasses and grassland habitats
- 28th January - Getting started with Cotoneasters
- 4th February - Rubus (Brambles) in Northern Ireland
James Harding-Morris, BSBI Countries Manager
DDb Spreadsheet upload
Until now only BSBI staff have been able to upload spreadsheets of records to the BSBI Distribution Database (DDb). Following a trial of direct VCR upload we are now offering this to all VCRs on a by-request basis. If you’d like to be able to upload spreadsheet data to the DDb directly then please contact your Country Officer to arrange the necessary permission update to your DDb account. They will review your first spreadsheet and guide you through the upload process.
Please note that Country Officers will be continuing to upload spreadsheets for VCRs, so you can still send through your data for upload if you’d prefer. A group Zoom session on spreadsheet upload is planned for the 19th November at 19.30. An email with joining details will be circulated to VCRs.
Sam Thomas, BSBI England Officer
Interesting Irish finds wanted for January BSBI News
If you found anything exciting over the last few months, or have an interesting botanical tale to tell that didn’t make its way into the most recent edition of BSBI News, there is still time to include it in the next edition! If you could email me a short description of the find and perhaps a photograph or two, by the middle of November if possible, that would be much appreciated. It will be nice for everyone to recall summer plant hunting and mull over those special finds when the magazine comes out in the depths of winter!
Bridget Keehan, BSBI Ireland Officer
Future Mint (Mentha) workshop
Ambroise Baker is planning on organising a workshop on Mentha identification in 2025. He is keen for anyone who might be interested either as a participant or co-organiser to reach out to him in order to identify the best location, date, format and focus for the workshop. BSBI members can find out more on page 63 of the latest issue of BSBI News.
Sam Thomas on behalf of Mary Dean, Committee for England Field Meetings Secretary
Suggestions for Irish field meetings next year
Next year’s field meetings are currently being planned, and it would be great if the 2025 programme could be bigger and better than ever. If you would like to lead a field meeting in your area, please contact our field meetings secretary Mark McCorry directly, or if you have a great idea for a field meeting you’d like to see, let Mark or myself know and we will see if it can be organised!
Bridget Keehan, BSBI Ireland Officer
Local Botany Groups showcased in Scotland
Local botany groups are a fantastic way to get people looking at and recording plants, exploring their local area, and building a botanical community! I am always delighted to showcase their activities in Scotland on the website, and wanted to highlight recent updates I received from three groups.
The West Central Scotland Botany Network, formed of botanists of all abilities from the vice-counties of Lanarkshire, Renfrewshire and Dunbartonshire, continues to go from strength to strength. Their shared newsletter, Trifoliate, is available on the webpage, and you can read the latest Autumn 2024 edition.
The recently formed Lothian Botany Group, covering Midlothian and East Lothian, has also had a very successful and productive year, and you can read the highlights from their 2024 programme.
Finally, 2024 field meeting reports from the Dumfriesshire Botany Group are now available on the Dumfriesshire vice-county page - plenty to whet the appetite for some southern Scotland botanising!
Congratulations to all the County Recorders and other organisers who make these and other local botany groups in Scotland and elsewhere so successful! BSBI Country Officers are always happy to promote and publicise these activities, so do get in touch if you want to share your local botanical adventures more widely.
Matt Harding, BSBI Scotland Officer
Upcoming NPMS events
There are a couple of interesting NPMS webinars coming up in November; a session on Coastal Vegetated Shingle and another on Winter Trees – how to identify native broadleaves in autumn-winter. Both of these can be seen and booked on the NPMS training page.
James Harding-Morris, BSBI Countries Manager
Charity Raffle for the BSBI
We’re excited to announce our first ever charity raffle, with all ticket proceeds going towards the work of the BSBI in supporting our work and our community of botanists.
Greenwings, one of our BSBI Corporate Supporters, have kindly donated a place on their 2025 Rhodes Orchid Odyssey tour - worth over £1,300 - to be won by one lucky BSBI supporter.
Tickets cost £10/€11.90 and there are a maximum of 2,000 available, so be sure to enter to be in with a chance to win. The draw will take place in the first week of 2025.
To enter and for full Ts&Cs, click here.
Sarah Woods, BSBI Fundraising and Engagement Manager
County Membership Lists
If, as a BSBI volunteer such as a County Recorder, you need access to members’ contact details in your area, we can arrange this. We will need you to read and sign our Volunteer Confidentiality and Data Protection Agreement. For more information see the membership list page on the password-protected members’ area of the BSBI website.
James Harding-Morris, BSBI Countries Manager