Winter Talks

The 2023-24 Winter Talks series has now finished. To find out more about BSBI Winter Talks, to request a talk on a particular subject, or to offer to give a talk yourself, please contact us: enquiries@bsbi.org. To view past talks, please visit the Winter Talks playlist on the BSBI YouTube channel.

Winter Talk 1: The Somerset Wetlands. A conservation success?

Wednesday 6th December

Stephen Parker talks through the conservation challenges of the Somerset Levels.

BSBI County Recorder for South Somerset and member of the Somerset Rare Plant Group, Steve previously worked for Natural England and was particularly focused on the Somerset Levels and Moors.

Winter Talk 2: Building an online multi-access identification key to the mega-diverse and economically important genus Solanum (Solanaceae family)

Wednesday 10th January

Rebecca Hilgenhof, Postgraduate Programme Coordinator at Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, has spent the past 4 years constructing an online multi-access identification key to the mega-diverse genus Solanum (1,242 spp. total) of the nightshade (Solanaceae) family using the software Xper3. The key currently covers over 60% (572 spp.) of species including all non-spiny species and crop wild relatives of the cultivated tomato and potato along with spiny species from Africa and Asia, which includes the cultivated eggplant. Each of the 52 morphological character (incl. geography) assessed in the Solanum key and their states are explained in written and with photographic plates making the key user-friendly for expert and non-expert users.

Winter Talk 3: Using plants of local provenance to create wetland habitats in the Lower Ure

Wednesday 7th February

Martin Hammond, ecologist with the Lower Ure Conservation Trust (West Yorkshire), spoke about using plants of local provenance to create wetland habitats. Martin was joined by two lead volunteers, Pandora Thoresby and Laurie Reed, to talk about plant propagation methods.

Winter Talk 4: The Fenland Flora

Wednesday 6th March

A talk on the Fenland Flora by Owen Mountford.

Owen is responsible for the Fenland Flora Project and works for the UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology. More on the Fenland Flora Project including annual updates can be found here.

The Somerset wetlands: a conservation success?

Building an online multi-access identification key to Solanum (Solanaceae family)

Using plants of local provenance to create wetland habitats in the Lower Ure

The Fenland Flora