Scotland

While Covid-19 continues to impact severely on our lives and sadly continues to threaten and end lives, there may be safer days ahead and the safety of staff, members and others remains our top priority.

We hope to resume field meetings and indoor events in the coming months, subject to Government guidance specific to England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. You must check the latest details of any advertised meeting online or by contacting the meeting leader. Do not assume that a meeting can go ahead without checking. Arrangements for meetings outdoors and indoors may vary; indoor meetings may have to be replaced by electronic meetings. Guidance documents for both participants and for leaders of field meetings have been revised to take account of ongoing Covid-19 prevention measures, and all guidance must be followed at all times. In the meantime, if you choose to go out you must follow all current Government guidance for the locality, including social distancing and other Covid-19 prevention measures, as well as more general safe practices if fieldwork is permitted. BSBI Trustees continue to closely monitor the situation and reserve the right to change advice at short notice if necessary. If you have any questions, please feel free to get in touch with our Hon Gen Sec Steve Gater.

Latest News

*NEW* 120 botanists participated in the 2021 Scottish Spring Conference on 20 March. There were some great presentations including a truly inspirational talk on Carrifran Wildwood and we announced two major new Scottish recording projects - the Urban Flora Project and the Scottish HectAd Rare Plant Project. We have uploaded the talks to the BSBI YouTube channel and linked them to the programme on the Scottish Spring Conference page.

*NEW* We have just published the 2020 County Annual Reports.

*NEW* We send out a monthly electronic Newsletter with news and events of interest to all BSBI members including those in Scotland. Click to subscribe to the BSBI eNewsletter

*NEW* Check out the Botanical Society of Scotland's new Botany in Scotland blog - interesting and regularly updated articles!

Scottish Officer

Jim McIntosh

Address: Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, 20a Inverleith Row, Edinburgh EH3 5LR

Email: [email protected]

Phone: 0131 248 2894

Scottish Newsletter

*NEW* The latest issue of the Scottish Newsletter No. 43, 2021 is out. All issues since 1979 are available on the Scottish Newsletter page.

2020 VC Annual Reports

Every year we ask County Recorders to summarise the most interesting and exciting news from their Counties in less than 250 words.  Here are their 2020 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

We had a record 350 register for Scottish Botanists' Conference last autumn. Check out the special Scottish Botanists' Conference 2020 site, where you can still peruse the exhibition, view the BSBI Photographic Competition, or watch recordings of the talks and workshops. See the Scottish Botanists Conference page for details of previous conferences.

Grasses workshop in 2021

Experimentally we are holding an Online Workshop for Grass Beginners using fresh specimens on June 12. Click the link for further information and to book. Meanwhile you might like to view last year's Introduction to Grass Id or Introduction to Sedge Id  webinars.

The most recent State of Nature report was published in 2019.

Find out more here or download the SoN summary for Scotland.

BSBI Plant identification workshop for beginners

We are also holding an experimental online Identifying Wildflower Families workshop on the 22 May 2021. Click the link for more information and to book. BSBI members may find this workshop a little too basic but please let any friends or colleagues know about it if they are complete beginners.

Scottish Local Groups

Get in touch with your local group to find out about local botanical field meetings:

Natural History Societies in Glasgow, Dundee, Edinburgh, Paisley, Berwick and Lochaber also arrange programmes that include some botany.

New Year Plant Hunt 2021

To find out which plants were spotted in bloom in Scotland during the 2021 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!