Upcoming Winter Talks:
Wednesday 8th January, 7.30pm - The curious case of the man, the lady and the monkey - Dr David Roberts, University of Kent
Wednesday 5th February, 7.30pm - Tephroseris and the challenges of trying to learn botany in your 40s - Anna Lacey,
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.
Past Winter Talks
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.
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.
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.
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.