Mapmate Patch 424 (updated 20/12/2010)

You can now download a patch with the new Hieracium taxonomy, but Dave Broughton has spotted a problem with it. Because the revision of hawkweed microspecies has been so complete, most of the old names have been assigned to a few aggregates. If you download the patch it could be difficult to work out what they used to be. So if you have determinations of Hieracium, you might like to make a full backup of your Mapmate directory before installing the patch, just in case you want to revert to the old names (I’m not entirely sure why you would want to, but it is a lot of effort to get all your hawkweeds re-determined with the new names).

Bob Ellis explains: The few new Sell taxa already in MapMate will not be changed. Other new taxa will not have any records because the taxon was not available in MapMate - they can now be added. The only issue arises with the 'type' taxon that has been split. This is effectively a new taxonomic concept of narrower bounds and existing records with that name are assigned to the aggregate because there is obviously nothing explicit in the old taxon name that distinguishes it from the new splits. Here any that have actually been detemined as the 'type', sensu stricto, need to be manually assigned to the new 'type' taxon. In some instances this is a bit of a chore but I see no other way of handling it and neither could David McCosh. The list of the scopes of the new aggregates is for reference. Where a few taxa have been merged (sunk) this is handled with synonyms.

Digitization of BEC Reports (7/12/2010)

We’ve made great progress with digitization of botanical literature this year, mainly thanks to the super new scanner at the University of Birmingham, which Sarah Whild kindly allowed us to use for free. All of BSBI News, Proceedings and Watsonia are now scanned and I am uploading them on request. Martin Sanford has sent the last volume of Watsonia, so that will soon be the complete run. You might have noticed that we don’t have a very high tech approach - the pdfs are mostly non-searchable. I am rather hoping that a gizmo will appear one day that will take our pdfs and OCR them into nicer-looking documents.

One problem I have had is with the recent Watsonia proofs, which come to us with the printer’s crop marks, and the print is very small on A4. We can now solve that with the aid of a natty little program called PDFill, so I am in the process of chopping 1 inch off the margins of all the recent papers. Let me know if there is one you want that hasn’t been cropped yet.

New membership rules (7/12/2010)

Some people may have spotted that we are no longer offering institutional membership. The reason for this is that Maney will be managing institutional subscriptions to the New Journal of Botany, which are aimed at universities and research establishments, and give electronic access to the journal for all the staff and students at those institutions.

Maney are managing the changeover for BSBI and they should be contacted regarding any queries.

Individual membership categories and subscriptions remain unaltered.

More about the TPP (7/12/2010)

Ann Sankey asks if it is possible to send in TPP reports as Mapmate sync files, as this would be quicker. Well, the answer is no, because the TPP is compiled on a different database, with a whole lot of fields that Mapmate doesn’t handle. Bear in mind that the TPP is a resurvey of a sample of sites, not a standard data-gathering exercise. We have not yet seen an analysis that shows the TPP database is indeed more powerful than just collecting data on Mapmate, so the jury is still out on this one, but it seems fair enough to give Kevin Walker a chance to prove its worth. We are promised an analysis of the first two years’ data presently.

It should be possible to have an electronic data submission system, though, so you could export the basic info from Mapmate rather than copy it out by hand. That would be more efficient. I shall investigate that option and report.

Threatened Plants Report (6/12/2010)

Kevin Walker sends a report on the number of recording cards completed so far, and lists the TPP species for the next two years. The specific sites chosen for survey next year will be available presently.

>>> TPP report on progress to date.

New species accounts website (1/11/2010)

We now have a dedicated web site for species accounts, where users can post comments or log on to add/edit the accounts. Our aim is to increase the number of species accounts available and to make them more user-friendly. See what you think. The site is being worked on, and I dare say there are improvements that could be made, but it is early days. If there is anyone would would like to contribute an account, please get in touch.

Rorippa islandica (1/10/2010)

Can county recorders please help with the map of Rorippa islandica? The map tends to get in a terrible mess because        R. islandica is an old name for the relatively common R. palustris, and a lot of people don’t realise this. However, islandica has been spreading recently, and we can’t always tell from the records which dots are for genuine records and which are just mistakes. Please have a look at the Maps Scheme map and send me records that we are missing; also any further corrections to the old records. Thanks.

Recorders’ Conference 2010 (20/9/2010)

Many thanks to everyone who came to the Recorders’ Conference this year and made it such an enjoyable and productive experience once again. Especially our speakers and workshop leaders, who give up their time for free: Fred Rumsey, Richard Gornall, Tim Rich, John O’Reilly, Sarah Whild, Martin Harvey, Michael Braithwaite, Quentin Groom, Kevin Walker, Jim McIntosh, Tom Humphrey, Bob Ellis, Clare O’Reilly, Rose Murphy, Alan Silverside, John Poland and Ken Adams. Various parts of the conference will be written up in BSBI Recorder again, and we shall look into ways of improving our work and services in response to any ideas generated by the meeting. Your feedback on the conference averaged 4.5/5 across all categories which suggests that people were happy with it. We probably won’t be having another full conference like this for three years, but we shall look forward to 2013. Oh, and the vote - surprisingly, perhaps, 2-1 in favour of ranking critical microspecies as varieties not species. Interesting, and probably the correct answer, scientifically. But a difficult thing to do. We shall work on it.

Publication date for NJB (24/8/2010)

It is good to see that we now have a publication date for the New Journal of Botany. This year (2010) will see the end of Watsonia which, in 2011, will be replaced by the new journal. The reason for the change is to increase the scientific impact of the journal which, owing to the structure of the business, was not possible under the Watsonia format. NJB will be published in volumes annually (rather than biennially). It will start with just two issues in 2011, but will rise to 4 issues within a few years. It will also be in the standard A4 format and will be available electronically as well as on paper. Another change is that the content will be more scientific, with fewer non-academic contributions. All this is designed to appeal to the academic audience (both subscribers and contributors) and, to help us with this task, we have appointed the independent British firm Maney to publish the new journal on behalf of the society.

Download the flyer for New Journal of Botany (pdf 3.8 Mb)

What will the change mean for members? Initially, very little. All members will receive the new journal and will have access on-line at no extra charge.

So why are we making the change? The changes are essential to make sure we continue to attract high quality papers and to market the new journal to institutions such as universities, which now want access electronically rather than on paper. The aim is to raise the standard of the journal and improve its finances at the same time.

International Biogeography Conference (19th August 2010)

We were asked to mention the 5th Biennial Conference of the International Biogeography Society in Crete, 7-11 January 2011, so here it is. Download the flyer here.

Fumaria muralis in Stace 3 (9/8/2010)

Clive Stace emails to say he has received helpful comments pointing out that he has mispelled Fumaria muralis ssp. boraei in his latest Flora. However, it is not mispelled. Clive writes:

‘Recent thinking is that boroei is the correct spelling. The problem is that the original was written as a diphthong, when you cannot tell oe from ae, but it is named after Boreau which makes oe much more likely (see Flora Nordica).

‘I’m not saying that it is correct in my Flora, but what is written there is intended and agrees with latest thinking.’

Flora of Cardiganshire (4/8/2010)

Arthur Chater’s long-awaited Fl. Cardiganshire has just arrived on my desk. It is a Flora that will be of real value to anyone with a serious interest in botany, whether they ever visit Cardiganshire or not. There is a vast wealth of information on taxonomy (it is the first county Flora to use the new Stace 3 names) and plants, as well as on Cardiganshire itself. It is lavishly illustrated, not with pictures of flowers, but with images that support the text, such as landscapes, habitats and - unusually, but charmingly, all the people who contributed to the project. This is a big book (it weighs more than half a stone) and, at £40, not a cheap one. But if you can afford it and have room for it, you will get a lot of readable words for your money. It is also effectively a limited edition: just 500 have been printed. I doubt that it is a collectible investment, but I reckon copies will at least hold their value. Essential reading for anyone who is planning a Flora of their own, as well as for anyone who wants to understand plants rather than just list where they occur.

New Floras (15/6/2010)

I received the new Flora of Co. Tyrone today - the first ever for this rather overlooked northern Irish county. It turns out to have plenty of really good species and habitats, but has suffered in the past from not having anything exceptional, or even any mountains or coastline. The book is in full colour throughout with probably the best photographs of any county Flora I’ve seen, mostly pictures of flowers, but also lots of landscapes. It is not highly technical, but it should appeal to anyone visiting the area, not just expert botanists. It’s a great accomplishment by Ian McNeill (and family) to keep pushing the geographical boundaries of botanical recording. I see it is for sale at Summerfield Books for £27.

These are interesting times for local Floras, with many recently published or in the pipeline. Notable ones include Martin Sanford’s Suffolk, which is the most glossy book I’ve ever owned. Not that it is a coffee table publication - it has plenty of good, solid data of many sorts. There is a trend now towards Floras being produced by Records Centres and produced with the nature conservation sector in mind rather than just taxonomic interest. Some traditional botanists might be sniffy about the shortage of critical taxa in this and other recent Floras, but the conservation angle is not well served by phenomenal detail of obscure and sometimes dubious entities such as hawkweeds. I think this is the future of local Flora writing.

By contrast, two highly expert taxonomic Floras in the pipeline are Arthur Chater’s Cardiganshire (now in press) and Roger Maskew’s Worcestershire. The former contains the most detailed observations of plants ever made in a county Flora, whereas the latter is based on the most thorough county survey ever, with complete coverage of every imaginable taxon. Whereas a modern conservation Flora might aim for 200 species per tetrad, the Worcestershire team have gone for something more like 500, and have collected in total some 650,000 records - the largest database for any vice county.

Others we shall look forward to include Ian Trueman’s urban Flora of Birmingham and the Black Country, which will cover planted species in a way no-one has done before, and Chris Boon’s Bedfordshire, which contains exhaustive historical research. There’s always fierce competition to keep these things moving forward, taxonomically, technologically and socially. Keep ‘em coming...

Site Map (10/6/2010)

It’s always nice to receive positive feedback about a web site, and we do get plenty of that (thank you, dear readers), but increasingly I am hearing comments that it is difficult to find things because we have so many resources. I calculated once that we have over 50,000 pages to search, and it is hard to index them all. So I’ve created a site map to the main pages. It shouldn’t be too complex, or it won’t help. Let me know if there is anything I should add or if you have any suggestions for improvements.

Running Recorder 3 under Windows 7 (10/6/2010)

Apologies for being a bit geeky, but I do hear a lot of misinformation on this subject. You can indeed run old Recorder (Recorder 3) and, for that matter, any other Dos program under Windows 7. There are several ways. The simplest is to simply copy your entire Recorder folder and all its subfolders onto the c drive of your new computer (NB, it must be c:\recorder). Then, from the desktop, create a new shortcut to run the program c:\recorder\arev\arev.exe. You have to add a space and comma after the ‘exe’ to get it to launch Recorder rather than arev. Before attempting to run it yu must set it to compatibility with Windows XP (or Win 98) mode and enable it to use ems and xms (right-click on the shortcut icon). This should run Recorder fine, but it will open in a funny window and Plot 5 won’t run.

To get Recorder to run exactly as it did under previous systems, you have to download a program called Dosbox. Read the Dosbox Wiki (http://www.dosbox.com/wiki/Basic_Setup_and_Installation_of_DosBox ) for instructions. I created a folder called dos and put recorder into that (c:\dos\recorder). Then you mount the folder dos as c: and run recorder in the usual way (change directory to the arev folder and run arev.exe ,). The default display option in Recorder (utilities - environment - hardware - display) gives you full screen mode.

Having said all that, it is a pretty clunky way to run an old piece of software. I would recommend it for accessing an old dataset, but not for day-to-day working. If you would like help in extracting your data to transfer to Mapmate, you can email me.

Maps Scheme to use Stace 3 names (7/6/2010)

There have been many changes to taxonomy in the last decade or so that we have not passed on to recorders through the Maps Scheme and changes to the checklist in Mapmate. Some organisations have adopted some of them piecemeal, but this is not always wise as changes are occasionally reversed, and without a comprehensive Flora that defines the species and taxonomy, it is difficult to know what plant is intended. However, with the publication of the third edition of Stace’s New Flora, we feel we have a new taxonomy that will last for some time. A relatively small number of changes have occurred in the names of species, but much more profound changes have taken place in the families and the order of the families. These changes are being implemented in the Maps Scheme and will shortly be implemented in Mapmate. We would advise everyone to acquire a copy of the 3rd edition of the New Flora if they are serious about botany.

For your convenience, here is an Excel table showing the changes in the Maps Scheme so far:

>> Name changes in Stace 3

Changes to structure of web site (12/4/2010)

Apologies to anyone who links to particular pages on our web site, but I have changed the structure a bit. The url for individual pages used to contain /html/ in the middle, but no longer do. So a county recorder’s page now has this format: www.bsbi.org.uk/mycounty.html.

This means links need to be updated. Sorry - but I hope you agree it is nicer and more logical and shorter, so worth doing.

Course on wild flowers of the Lizard Peninsula (10/2/2010)

There will be a course on wild flowers of the Lizard Peninsula, Cornwall from Friday 11th June to Sunday 13th June. Based in Coverack but also visiting Black Head, Predannack, Kynance, Lowland Point and Godrevy. Led by Dr Gillian Ashworth, retired Professor of botany, aided by local enthusiast, Peter Wood. It is £75 and is suitable for beginners and more experienced botanists.

This course has been organised by Coverack Space 2000, a community group that works to provide events and activities for the local community and the school. Once expenses have been paid, proceeds will go to help run community events and activities in Coverack. Please visit the website www.coverack.org.uk. There are only 12 places so better book up sooner than later! For more details see http://www.coverack.org.uk/pages/flowers10.html

John Ray Meeting (21/1/2010)

The Society for the History of Natural History is organising a meeting later this year to celebrate 350 years since John Ray’s Catalogue of Cambridge plants. They are calling for speakers... have a look at their flyer (pdf 39kb).

Checklists for County Recorders (24/12/09)

Quentin has generated checklists for all vice counties again, similar to those sent out the last few years. What we are  looking for most is feedback about errors - usually species that have been accidentally recorded or mistyped. Those who are more advanced in their computerisation might like to compare their date classes for each species and see if they’re getting useful trends. Email me, please, with your corrections - you know the routine.

If you haven’t sent any data recently, the list will be out of date, so feel free to send it now before the annual stats appear in the Recorder Newsletter.

Gladiolus tidings (25/11/2009)

A conference all about the Wild Gladiolus (Gladiolus illyricus) is to be held in the New Forest on 13th March 2010. As advance notice,a flyer for the conference is available here. We shall be promoting the event nearer the time.

Botanical Curator wanted (24/11/09)

This comes from Leicestershire County Council:

• Job Title: Curator - Natural Life (Botany)
• Location: Leicestershire
• Closing Date: 18th December
• Salary/Payscale: £25,497 - £28,638

We are looking for an enthusiastic and dedicated botany curator with proven collections management skills, a flair for exhibitions, a love of communication and great interpersonal abilities to join the Museums Collections Team of Leicestershire County Council. This newly formed specialist team is looking for an experienced curator with a good understanding of systematic botany to manage our botany collections for current and future use, including lower plants.

An enthusiasm for collections development will be essential for contributing in a flexible, exciting and diverse way the communication of natural history, at an exciting time for museum collections in Leicestershire.

• You will be responsible for leading on natural history collections care, with particular responsibility for the botanical element of our natural life collections.
• You will create exhibitions and interpretative material; support public talks and events to promote the collections.
• You will promote access to the collections; and ensure a high standard of collections care, data and information management.
• You will work closely with our dedicated team of volunteers and special interest groups.
• You will have experience of working in an accredited museum, and be able to demonstrate good organisational, communication and I.T. skills.

http://www.leics.gov.uk/index/jobs/job_detailpage.htm?id=179245

For more information call Carolyn Holmes, Senior Curator Natural Life 0116 3054102

Wacky plants (4/11/2009)

Do you ever come across unusual plants such as Ragweed, Ambrosia artemisiifolia? If so, there is probably someone trying to study them. Visit the Species Accounts pages for details and send your observations to the people concerned. I don’t allow bandwagoners onto the web site, so you can be fairly confident that these people are genuine researchers.

Grasses Handbook (29/10/09)

BSBI Handbook No. 13: Grasses of the British Isles

• The hard-back edition was posted on Monday October 26th
• The soft-back edition will be posted on Monday November 2nd
• Mixed orders (hard- and soft-back) will be posted on Monday November 2nd
• Orders for more than two copies and all non-UK orders of the soft-back will be posted on Tuesday November 3rd

NB - The November mailing dates may change if the postal strike(s) continue.

A little promotion for Australia... (29/10/09)

XVIII International Botanical Congress: Melbourne Convention & Exhibition Centre.

23 – 30 July 2011

Highlights of the Congress

• Nomenclature Section to be held pre-Congress from 18 - 22 July 2011
• 225 General Symposia in addition to keynote and plenary sessions
• Over 4000 delegates expected to attend
• Australia-wide field trips designed to showcase the diversity of Australia and its distinctive flora
• A once in every five year opportunity to re-connect with colleagues from around the world

For further Congress information and regular updates, please register your interest online at www.ibc2011.com

Paul Green wins award (24/8/2009)

BSBI member Paul Green has been given an award from the Irish National Biodiversity Data Centre for ‘best recorder of the year.’ Paul is no stranger to such awards - a few years ago he shared the Presidents’ Award from the BSBI and the Wild Flower Society with his brother Ian and co-author Geraldine Crouch for their Atlas Flora of Somerset. His new Flora of Co. Waterford is another impressive species-mapping exercise. Congratulations to Paul for his all his hard work (the photo, right, show Paul being presented with his award by the chairman on the Data Centre).

Solanum rostratum appeal (23/8/2009)

Mario Vallejo-Marin is studying this strange alien plant and is appealing for records. If anyone has a current locality, please email Mario.

Visit: http://species.bsbi.org.uk/html/solanum_rostratum.html for more info.

New records in Herbaria at Home (1/6/2009)

Quentin has run a new a new analysis of the data in Herbaria at Home comparing it with what we have on the Maps Scheme database. These are possible new records. It has to be used with an appropriate degree of caution. The records in Herbaria at Home have been transcribed by people who are not necessarily experts on every aspect of taxonomy and the geography of your county, so there are details of the records that need to be changed. Also the Maps Scheme is not complete: county recorders may know of records that have not, for one reason or another, made their way through to it. So, being aware of these considerations, the list may be a useful guide to where some new records can be found for your county. You’ll have to log onto Herbaria at Home and look up the specimens concerned, and then you can make use of them if you choose to. The table only lists species that have already been recorded in a 10km square, but not in that date class.

>>> Download the table here (xls 463kb)

Vegetative Key arrives (6/5/2009)

The most talked-about book for a decade has arrived - the Vegetative Key, which is largely by John Poland, but based on an idea by Eric Clement. It is a nicely produced publication, a compact paperback that could easily be taken out into the field. To save space, the paper in thin, the margins are narrow and there is no wasted space. But there are colour illustrations where needed. Anyone thinking this is going to make life easy for beginners is mistaken, though - these are not easy keys to get used to. It will encourage a lot of careful study of plants, which has to be a good thing. I like it very much; but it is scary. If you have bought it already, send me your comments and first impressions, and I’ll post them on this page for prospective buyers...

Even when you do grind to a halt using the veg key, you are usually down to a handful of species by then, and can go back to the other books to finish the job off. Equally, when you grind to a halt using one of the standard keys, the veg key will finish the job off for you.

It's made me aware that for years I've been walking past many non-flowering plants which I could easily have been recording, and it will make species lists for a site less dependent on the time of year the site is visited.

Some of its revelations seem too good to be true. Can Aphanes and Atriplex really be that simple? This remains to be investigated, but certainly the book provides a great many shortcuts to identifying plants that are flowering and fruiting as well as those that aren't, and will get plenty of use with both kinds of material.

My overall impression is that I've acquired a tool that cuts through difficulties like a knife through butter.

Hugh A.P. Ingram (6/5/2009): Our copy of Poland & Clement arrived yesterday. It makes fascinating reading and we look forward very much to ‘firing it in anger’ in the field. Many thanks to the Society for this welcome initiative. I have, however, one considerable reservation about the presentation. It is disappointing that it has been printed in a font without serifs. Having served my time at the publishing end of botany (used inter alia to edit the Journal of Applied Ecology) I am aware that typographers prefer fonts with serifs because compared with sans-serif fonts they are understood to be more readily legible to the vast majority of readers, hence their use in newspapers and most printed books. It is therefore difficult to view the current preoccupation with sans-serif fonts as other than an ill-considered fad from which one would have hoped the BSBI would be immune. In the current context, where there has been justifiable effort to save on size and weight (one remembers with affectionate amusement those comments on the first edition of C,T&W about the ‘poacher's pocket flora’), the need to use smallish type is well understood; but it surely follows that more care should have been taken to ensure the best possible legibility by way of compensation.

What does ‘status’ mean? (1/5/2009)

Whilst compiling species accounts, I’ve often come across the question of what to put under the ‘status’ heading. Status means many different things, and people seem to have very different ideas of what it is for. Not necessarily a problem, but if you are not clear about the precise meaning, then it is possible to come up with what is clearly a wrong answer for what seem like perfectly good reasons.

I’ve come up with a possible solution to this problem by dividing status into four headings:

• Origin - whether it is native or not; sometimes a much more complex issue than you might imagine.
• Rarity - an assessment of how abundant the plant is; again not necessarily simple, given issues such as frequency, abundance and range; also this can vary between countries/counties.
• Threat - rate of decline and/or increase. A simple concept, but sometimes difficult to measure.
• Conservation - any importance the plant has to conservation, not taking into account any of the above. The best measure of this is designation as an axiophyte (indicator of conservation habitat).

The aim is to consider these in isolation from each other. Thus, a plant can have a high conservation value but not be native. Shock horror! But it’s true. A non-native semi-aquatic plant with a low nitrogen requirement is an indicator of mesotrophic waters, which is a BAP habitat in most places, whether you like aliens or not. Alternatively, a plant could be rare but not threatened. By separating out these four factors, you can arrive at a better understanding of the species, and then make a decision about whether to eradicate it, plant it, encourage it or ignore it as you like.

One category I have not included yet is legal protection, which I guess is another type of status. Should this be included? It’s quite complicated, given at least 6 legal systems to cope with and a state of ongoing change. Are there any other components of status that I have not thought of?

Improve your vital statistics  (4/4/2009)

Since the Maps Scheme was (re-)launched in 2005 I have worried about the danger of mindlessly pursuing data collection at the expense of real botany. If your county has, say, a 75% resurvey rate, then you could easily run around the remote areas ticking lists and getting the highest possible score. But what a terrible waste of time such an activity could be - pointlessly recording Arrhenatherum in every square whilst doing nothing of any importance.

On the other hand, there is good reason to get to every part of the county from time to time. Whenever I pop out to a remote agricultural region that has dismal numbers of plants recorded, even at this time of year, I invariably come across something at least a little bit interesting. A roadside verge stuffed with thousands of spikes of Equisetum telmateia just emerging; hedges rich in Midland Hawthorn (or is it the hybrid (rows of cuttings lined up on the windowsill should reveal all soon)) or verges laden with Viola reichenbachiana where it has never been recorded before. Probably these lessons are more to my benefit than to plant recording generally, but still it shows the advantage of surveuying the whole county, not just the hotspots. I haven’t come across anyone pointlessly recording yet.

Now Quentin Groom has created an easy way to plump up your stats whilst dealing with the most under-recorded part of your county. The attached Excel table (email me if you don’t have Excel) lists the worst square in DC4 as compared with DC3. If you do no other square bashing this year, then make sure you cover this one for the maximum benefit.

>>> Download the Excel table.

The Future of Watsonia (6/2/09)

Publications Committee is recommending that the BSBI’s journal, Watsonia, be given a makeover and that an external publisher should be appointed. Changes might include a new name (the name Watsonia doesn’t instantly tell potential readers what it is about) and a more academic content. The main issue is that modern scientific journals need to have a high academic standard and an Impact Factor to appeal to academic authors and subscribers, so the aim will be to focus the journal more on these areas.

As a serious contribution to the debate, I had this email from a correspondent:

“Dear Alex. Please don't change the name - every time it pops through the letter box my husband announces ‘Whats On is 'Ere’. I know its a pathetic joke but it makes I laugh! Kind regards. H.”

What can I say?

North vs. south (28/1/09)

Using the Maps Scheme database, Quentin Groom has calculated (on behalf of scientists in Russia studying European species distributions) the most successful species in the north (v.cc. 88-112) and the south of Britain (v.cc. 5-40). There are surprisingly few in common in the top 20, with only Ribwort Plantain being in the top five for both regions. It’s not the most exciting table you will ever see, but I wonder how many of these one would have been able to guess before the analysis was run?

Top 20 species by rank

North South Holcus lanatus Dactylis glomerata Cerastium fontanum Senecio jacobaea Ranunculus acris Trifolium repens Plantago lanceolata Plantago lanceolata Rumex acetosa Bellis perennis Trifolium repens Taraxacum officinale Calluna vulgaris Hedera helix Anthoxanthum odoratum Festuca rubra Carex nigra Cirsium arvense Bellis perennis Plantago major Potentilla erecta Galium aparine Viola riviniana Poa trivialis Lotus corniculatus Rumex obtusifolius Sagina procumbens Trifolium pratense Prunella vulgaris Poa annua Succisa pratensis Ranunculus repens Festuca ovina agg. Rubus fruticosus Festuca rubra Cirsium vulgare Juncus effusus Crataegus monogyna Luzula multiflora Lolium perenne

Vegetative Key (27/1/2009)

The long-awaited Vegetative Key, by John Poland and Eric Clement, is now being printed. The concept is new for a published plant identification guide, even though most botanists identify plants vegetatively most of the time. Once you see it, you wonder why no-one has thought of it before: keys to willows, for example, have always been largely based on leaf shape; and identification of agricultural grasses is often done on non-flowering specimens. But extending this to all the vegetation (‘flora’ doesn’t seem the right word) of Britain & Ireland is entirely novel.

The answer, of course, is that it can only work within a fixed number of species. You can’t study taxonomy and name new species without looking at the flowers (or other reproductive parts), because this is what species classification is largely based upon. So it is not a taxonomic approach, but merely a guide to a fixed number of plants. If the British Flora changes much over the next few decades it will quickly become out of date - but that would be true of any identification guide.

Groups practising with the Vegetative Key at recent conferences have all been highly enthusiastic, and John Poland’s sessions are always well attended. So we are all looking forward enormously to publication, and putting it to the test.

What’s this plant, then? Go to the bottom of the page to find out.

Monitoring BAP species (2/12/08)

It is interesting to see what has actually happened as a result of the extra attention lavished on the BAP plants over the last decade or so. One of the requests I have had recently was for data on Luronium natans, Floating Water-plantain, which is as good a choice as any for such an analysis, as it is quite an important plant ecologically (I’m not convinced that all the BAP species were so wisely chosen).

It turns out that L. natans is doing rather well. Part of this can indeed be attributed to the BAP process (and related legislation), as British Waterways in particular has been paying attention to its legal obligations by (a) not redeveloping canals with it in as quickly as they might have done otherwise, and (b) restoring other canals in a way that benefits the plant. To be honest, the only successful example of the latter to date is the Rochdale Canal, where quite a few new sites for it have been created following an apparently successful introduction programme. This is still early days, but if the plant persists for much longer then the project could fairly be hailed a success. No similar luck has held with the off-line reserves along the Montgomery Canal, where only one such site regularly supports a population. But, more importantly, the Monty has not yet been ‘restored’ to navigation.

The other clear benefit of the BAP is that people tend to take more notice of the plant. Some excellent survey work has been carried out in Norfolk by BESL Halcrow and, following its discovery in a new site in Lancashire, by consultants TEP. This is important because it has happened too often in the past that new Luronium sites have been reported but not properly documented before the plant disappeared again – leaving us with some doubt about whether it was ever really there at all.

The conclusion of the analysis is that Luronium natans is increasing its range in Britain. It seems to colonise new sites rather frequently, but often does not last long. This means we have to respond quickly to any new discovery to check that it really is Luronium and not Baldellia or Alisma, which often look just like it; and we need to keep resurveying sites to find out if it persists. Therefore the BAP process could be really useful by drawing people’s attention to the need for a rapid response to any new discoveries. Otherwise there’s not much evidence that conservation work, as such, is making a big impact.

Daily Mail agrees with BSBI, Shock Horror (19/11/08)

The results of the UK government’s Countryside Survey support the view put forward by BSBI member David Pearman that it is native species as much as exotic ones that are changing the British countryside. The Daily Mail was one of the newspapers to pick up the story, and reported it fairly accurately.

The big debate about alien species is whether they are really a cause or just a symptom of changes in the countryside. Eutrophication, climate change, drainage, disturbance and cessation of traditional management are among the main drivers of change, and some alien species benefit from that. But the BSBI has long argued that some native species respond just as readily. Simply cutting down alien plants does little to help the environment - what is needed is the relatively expensive and difficult solution of careful and responsible land management. Read our discussion paper for more information.

Data from the BM (1/10/08)

A resource that might interest county recorders is a set of records sent by Mark Spencer from the Natural History Museum (BM), partially digitized by Alison Lean. This includes ‘Baldellia, Astragalus danicus & Campanula patula + sundries’. You’ll need a modicum of brainpower to understand their formatting (which is fairly typical of museum databases), but it’s not too much of a challenge.

>>> Download the Excel table (277kb)

Herbarium Originals (15/9/08)

Quentin Groom has analysed the Herbaria at Home database to compare it with the Maps Scheme, and come up with a list of possible exciting new records. These are of taxa in 10km squares where there is currently no dot in the relevant date class. There are over 2,000 of these, but most are localised to one vice county so there’s not all that many for any one county recorder to sort through. But bear in mind that this is only after the first round of digitization - there could be errors in identification, in assigning sites, recorders or dates, etc. However, you can log on to Herbaria at Home to see the original sheets and correct anything that you don’t like.

>>> Open the Excel table (366 kb).

Maps Scheme (8/9/08)

We have had lots of data sets in for the Maps Scheme recently, taking our re-recording level for Date Class 4 (post 2000) compared with DC3 (the Atlas) to 55% for England. With a year of field recording still left, and rather longer for data gathering, we are confident that we will get as much data for 2000-2009 as we did for the decade ending 1999. Bear in mind that the Atlas date class was 13 years and that it often takes years for records to get computerised and to reach us, so we now have much more data for the Atlas period than the Atlas itself had.

The most active county at present is the Isle of Wight (v.c. 10), which has over 180% re-recording compared with the Atlas. This is due to the publication of Colin Pope’s Flora and energetic recording on Mapmate since then by Geoff Toone, Paul Stanley and others. Other counties that are doing rather well now include most of Northern Ireland, which has started sending in records in earnest.

We will be discussing what to do with Date Class 4 at the recorders conference in September, but a sensible strategy for all county recorders would be to use the remainder of 2008 and 2009 to get a reasonable amount of fieldwork done, and then they can have a year or two to computerise any backlog of data and get it through to us. We would advise against getting too enthusiastic – bear in mind that we start all over again with DC5 in 2010, and what we are aiming for is a sustainable, balanced approach to recording from one decade to the next.

Successful species (1/8/08)

Quentin Groom has analysed the Maps Scheme database to find out which species are increasing fastest since 2000. The top 100 are listed below. These include some ‘invasive’ aliens and some previously under-recorded taxa such as Sorbus hibernica, where the efforts of Tim Rich and David Cann have revealed many more plants than were previously known. Recorders are also seemingly paying more attention to garden escapes, crop volunteers and forestry trees. One or two of them are rare ‘natives’, however, that seem to be doing rather well. Here are the plants to look out for...

Acer saccharinum, Alchemilla mollis, Allium cepa, Allium subhirsutum, Alnus cordata, Alyssum saxatile, Amaranthus hybridus, Ambrosia artemisiifolia, Bassia scoparia, Berberis thunbergii, Bergenia crassifolia, Bromus secalinus, Buddleja globosa, Campanula poscharskyana, Cardamine corymbosa, Chamaecyparis pisifera, Chenopodium glaucum, Chenopodium quinoa, Cochlearia danica, Conyza bilbaoana, Conyza sumatrensis, Cordyline australis, Cornus alba, Cortaderia richardii, Cotoneaster rehderi, Crocosmia pottsii, Crocus chrysanthus, Crocus tommasinianus, Crocus vernus, Cyclamen coum, Cyclamen hederifolium, Cymbalaria pallida, Cyperus eragrostis, Echinochloa crus-galli, Echium pininana, Echium plantagineum, Erigeron glaucus, Erigeron karvinskianus, Euphorbia characias, Fraxinus ornus, Fumaria purpurea, Galanthus elwesii, Galanthus ikariae, Galanthus plicatus, Geranium macrorrhizum, Griselinia littoralis, Guizotia abyssinica, Hedera colchica, Helianthus annuus, Helleborus argutifolius, Heuchera sanguinea, Hyacinthus orientalis, Hydrangea macrophylla, Hydrocotyle ranunculoides, Iberis sempervirens, Illecebrum verticillatum, Iris orientalis, Kerria japonica, Kniphofia praecox, Linaria maroccana, Lobelia erinus, Lonicera pileata, Mentha pulegium, Narcissus aggregate, Nicandra physalodes, Nigella damascena, Oxalis exilis, Paeonia officinalis, Persicaria capitata, Phacelia tanacetifolia, Phalaris paradoxa, Philadelphus x virginalis, Photinia davidiana, Physalis peruviana, Phyteuma orbiculare, Pinus contorta, Poa infirma, Polygonum boreale, Polypogon viridis, Pontederia cordata, Populus 'Balsam Spire', Populus nigra 'Plantierensis', Pyracantha coccinea, Rhus typhina, Rosmarinus officinalis, Saxifraga spathularis, Scilla bifolia, Scilla siberica, Sedum spectabile, Senecio inaequidens, Sisyrinchium striatum, Sorbus croceocarpa, Sorbus hibernica, Stachys byzantina, Symphytum 'Hidcote Blue', Tellima grandiflora, Tristagma uniflorum, Verbena bonariensis, Veronica crista-galli, Zea mays.

What is Bocage? (27/6/08)

Bocage is a landscape of narrow, winding lanes, tall hedges and small copses that characterises some parts of western Europe, including Normandy. In May this year Natural England wanted to search for bocage-type habitat in south-western England in order to target agricultural subsidies, and they asked the BSBI to provide distribution data at tetrad scale to produce coincidence maps.

The species they chose were Agrimonia procera, Astragalus glycyphyllos, Epipactis atrorubens, Fallopia dumetorum, Fumaria capreolata, Geranium sanguineum, Lithospermum officinale, Luzula forsteri, Melittis mellisophyllum, Ornithogalum pyrenaicum, Orobanche purpurea, O. rapum-genistae, O. reticulata, O. caryophyllacea, Phyteuma spicatum, Pyrus cordata, Rosa canina x stylosa, R. micrantha, R. stylosa, R. tomentosa, Sorbus devoniensis, S. torminalis, Stellaria neglecta, Vicia bithynica, V. parviflora, and V. sylvatica.

This is the great advantage of tetrad scale mapping. Compared with the 10km data, which shows the range of each species, the tetrad maps give a much better view of the distribution. We need to keep gathering data at tetrad scale or better. The map here shows Stellaria neglecta at 2km scale – much more interesting than at the normal 10km scale, even though some counties haven’t yet recorded it at this level of detail.

What exactly is this distribution pattern, though? Neither westerly nor easterly - it most likes the Welsh Marches and a line down the middle of the British Isles. There are several other species that have this curious distribution, including Fumaria purpurea and Chrysosplenium alternifolium. Can anyone come up with an explanation?

Axiophytes (1/6/2008)

Several new axiophyte lists have been uploaded to the web site recently, including ones for Hampshire, Berkshire and Staffordshire. Some recorders have asked if they can edit their existing axiophyte lists, and the answer, of course, is yes. It is interesting to see which species others have chosen, and I suspect that it takes a few years of using them to really get the lists refined.

Dan Wrench has pointed out that rule 3 for the selection of axiophytes is unnecessary, and perhaps wrong. This is the rule that excludes rarities with fewer than 3 sites. The reason for this was that, traditionally, people tended to confuse rarity and conservation value, so all rare species were automatically considered important. However, some rarities – perhaps most – are virtually irrelevant to nature conservation. A good example of this would be Leersia oryzoides, perhaps – a rare (and possibly non-native) plant that happens to occur in one nice site but is more of a casual than an indicator species (debate!). However, some rare species are rare because they have declined, and are therefore strong axiophytes. So perhaps rule 3 needs to be modified, to say something like ‘leave out rarities unless you are sure they are highly specific to good habitats, rather than just happen to be in a good site.’

Visit the axiophytes page for more information.

Vegetative plant photo: Alternate-leaved Golden-saxifrage, Chrysosplenium alternifolium.