In light of Covid-19, the BSBI Trustees have recently decided to cancel all remaining BSBI field meetings for 2020. We are really sorry about this but our members’ safety is most important. Leaders of BSBI local groups should note that they cannot run events under the BSBI name, and we can't advertise or offer support or insurance for those local group events.
Hopefully we'll be able to resume field meetings and events as usual in 2021 (assuming government guidance allows). In the meantime, if you choose to go out botanising individually or with a few others, we urge you to ensure you follow all current government guidance around social distancing and other Covid-19 prevention measures, as well as more general safe practices for field work. If you have any questions, please feel free to get in touch with our Head of Ops.
Latest news
*NEW* The 2020 Scottish Newsletter is out now. Click on the link to view or download your copy.
Then why not visit our new Scottish Newsletter page where you'll find all issues since 1979 for a fascinating lock-down read?
Scottish Officer
Jim McIntosh
Address: Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, 20a Inverleith Row, Edinburgh EH3 5LR
Email: jim.mcintosh@bsbi.org
Phone: 0131 248 2894
2019 VC Annual Reports
Every year we ask Recorders to summarise the most interesting and exciting news from their Vice-counties in less than 250 words. Here are their 2019 Annual Reports. Take a look - it is a great read! Previous Annual Reports can be seen at the bottom of this page.
Scottish Botanists' Conference 2020
The 2020 Scottish Botanists' Conference is due to be held on Saturday 31st October at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, coronavirus permitting. Keep an eye on the conference page for further details as they become available.
Scottish Botanists' Conference 2019
The 2019 Scottish Botanists' Conference took place on Saturday 2nd November at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh. A record attendance of 200 enjoyed a great day of botanical talks, workshops, exhibits, posters and meeting people.
Our main speaker was Prof Richard Crawford who gave a talk Plants at the margin in a changing climate.
Click Scottish Botanists' Conference to see the programme, presentations, abstracts and a virtual exhibition.
Spring Conferences
We have had to cancel the 2020 Scottish spring recording conferences, planned for early April, due to coronavirus. You can, however, still view presentations from the 2019 Scottish spring conferences.
BSBI beginners' Sedges and Grasses workshops in 2020
Sadly, due to coronavirus, we have had to cancel this year's programme of workshops for beginners - two on sedges & rushes and two on grasses. The sedges & rushes workshops were scheduled to be in Dumfries on 6 June and Kinross on 13 June; and the grasses workshops were in Dunkeld on 27 June and Hamilton on 11 July.
It is increasingly doubtful that we will be able to reschedule them this year, but we do hope we can hold them in 2021. Watch this space!
The State of Nature report 2019 has been published. Find out more here or download the SoN summary for Scotland.
BSBI Plant identification workshop for beginners
We've also had to cancel the Identifying Wildflower Families workshop planned for 31st May at Holyrood in Edinburgh.
The workshop was the latest in the popular series we have been running for over six years that aims to help beginners to identify plant families and species.
Scottish Local Groups
Get in touch with your local group to find out about local botanical field meetings:
- Dumfriesshire run by Chris Miles
- Kirkcudbrightshire - David Hawker
- Lanarkshire - Michael Philip
- East Lothian - Marion Moir
- West Lothian - Jay Mackinnon
- Fife - Sandy Edwards
- Perthshire - Perthshire Society of Natural Sciences
- Moray - Ian Green
- Highlands - Inverness Botany Group
Natural History Societies in Scotland in Glasgow, Dundee, Edinburgh, Paisley, Berwick and Lochaber also arrange programmes that usually include some botany or botanical outings.
New Year Plant Hunt 2020
To find out which plants were spotted in bloom in Scotland during the 2020 New Year Plant Hunt, check out the map on the Results page and the New Year Plant Hunt Twitter feed here. Many thanks to all Scottish recorders who took part!