Field Meetings and other public events

A great way to get involved in botany. Most field meetings are open to anyone, although members have priority. If you want to book on a meeting, contact the leader well in advance because they will fill up. Please do not just turn up on the day.

Read these instructions and then view the list below.

>> Procedure for booking

>> Safety in the Field

>> Code of Conduct

>> BSBI Field meetings programme for 2012 (pdf)

2012

 

Saturday 12th May 2012: Annual General Meeting, Reading.

>> Open the flyer

NB the Black Horse House on Whiteknights campus has accommodation for £36 per night next weekend. Might be worth advertising if possible in case people are still struggling to find anywhere to stay (or can cancel their existing bookings if they want to stay with other BSBI members!). They can be emailed at blackhorsehouse@reading.ac.uk or phoned on 0118 3788906.

Sunday 13th May 2012:  Woodland Plants for Beginners. Collingbourne Wood, Ludgershall, Wiltshire (v.c. 8). Leader: Sharon Pilkington.

This training meeting is aimed at beginners or near-beginners and will introduce a wide range of woodland plants. We will spend the whole day hands-on in the woodland learning how to identify different species with a hand-lens and a botanical key. We will also spend time looking at the field characteristics of important plant families represented in the woodland flora.

Collingbourne Wood is a large semi-natural woodland with areas replanted with Beech Fagus sylvatica. It is well-known for its spring flowers and is home to many indicator species of ancient woodland, including Toothwort Lathraea squamaria, Bluebell Hyacinthoides non-scripta, Herb-Paris Paris quadrifolia and Wood Vetch Vicia sylvatica. Sunny damp rides in the wood offer habitat to a different suite of species, including Water Avens Geum rivale and Bitter-vetch Lathyrus linifolius. The wood also supports a diverse set of typical woodland trees, understorey shrubs, herbs, sedges, grasses and ferns.

Places are limited to 12 and booking is essential. To book, or for further details, please contact Sharon Pilkington.

Sunday 10th June 2012: Introduction to plant recording and the NE England Common Plant Survey. Kielder Forest, Northumberland (v.c. 67). Leaders: John O’Reilly & Quentin Groom.

This training meeting is for those new to plant recording and is also good experience for anyone wanting to work for Wildlife Trust or conservation sector projects involving botanical survey work or working with volunteer recorders.

There will be sessions on how to use a GPS, working with grid references, using recording cards and collecting specimens. We will help with plant identification throughout the day and work together to make a comprehensive list of plants from one 1 km x 1 km square to contribute to the ongoing North-east of England Common Plant Survey. This survey is based on recording from a randomly selected sample of squares and giving each species recorded a score for relative abundance on the DAFOR scale. More experienced plant recorders who are curious about the methodology and its advantages are also welcome. Meet at 10:30am at Elf Kirk car park at NY694861 and the day will finish by 5pm.

Places are limited and booking essential. To book contact John O’Reilly. Further details will be provided on booking.

Sunday 10th June 2012: Grass Identification Training Day, Newbridge Desmesne, Donabate, Co. Dublin (v.c. H21). Leader: Joanne Denyer.

This is a grass identification training meeting and will be suitable for beginners.  The aims will be to introduce the key characters used for grass identification and learn to identify a range of common species.  The parkland at Newbridge Demesne contains lowland neutral grassland, calcareous grassland and wet grassland, so a diverse range of species will be encountered. Further details will be provided on booking.

Places are limited to 15 and booking is essential. To book, or for further details, please contact Joanne Denyer.

Wednesday 20th - Friday 22 June: BSBI Wales Annual Meeting, Llangollen

>> Programme (pdf)

>> Booking form (doc)

Wednesday 27th June 2012: Introduction to coastal dune plants. Birkdale LNR, Sefton Coast, Lancashire (v.c. 59). Leader: Peter Gateley.

This training meeting is ideal for both beginners and ecologists who wish to specialise in coastal habitats as both plant identification and discussion of dune ecosystem processes will be included.  The site to be visited is within an area of actively accreting sand where a dynamic series of vegetation communities has been forming over the last three decades. We shall start on the bare foreshore and follow a time-line inland, identifying the various plants, particularly grasses, crucial within each stage of vegetation development, from 'green' beach and strandline through to fixed dune and mature slacks. Interesting quirks of vegetation to be seen here include incipient dune formation around mats of Common Saltmarsh-grass Puccinellia maritima and establishment of Alder Alnus glutinosa scrub in primary slacks.

Places are limited to 15 and booking is essential. Please book with Peter Gateley (01695 572794 or 07518 685807). Further details will be provided on booking.

Wednesday 4th July 2012: Field Identification Skills Test.

Wednesday 11th July 2012: Field Identification Skills Test.

Friday 12th July - Sunday 15th July 2012: Minehead, Somerset. Leader: R.D. Randall. A meeting arranged to improve the coverage of Rubus species in v.c. 5 for the forthcoming Somerset Rare Plants Register. The area was extensively studied over 100 years ago by R.P. Murray and E.S. Marshall, but field work since then has been very sparse. Visits will be made to many of their collecting sites and it is hoped that the true identity of species recorded under names no longer recognised, will be established. One of particular interest is Murray's 'R. mutabilis' which in all probability is the plant recognised by European botanists as R. multifidus. The latter is closely related to R. bloxamii but because British botanists, with the notable exception of D.E. Allen, have treated R. multifidus as synonymous with R. bloxamii, its distribution in Britain is unknown. To book contact the leader.

Saturday 11th August 2012: Top Ten Plant Families training day. Rhydymwyn Valley Nature Reserve, Mold, Flintshire (v.c. 51). Leader: Polly Spencer-Vellacott.

This training meeting is aimed at complete novices and beginners new to plant families. It will also be particularly useful for ecologists because recognising the plant family is a valuable starting point for using floras and can save a lot of time when keying out in the field. We will cover the basic parts of a flower and focus on the 10 plant families most commonly encountered, visiting lowland grasslands and woodland. New members and those who have not been on a BSBI meeting before are especially welcome.

Places are limited and booking is essential. Please book with Polly Spencer-Vellacott.

Thursday 20 & Friday 21 September 2012: Conference: A Great Leap Forward - Biological Recording since the 1962 Atlas of the British Flora. Royal Botanic Gardens, Edinburgh. Visit the conference page for details.

Wednesday 17th October 2012: Training the Trainers. A day for botanical tutors from around Britain & Ireland to share skills. Contact Sarah Whild for details.

Saturday 3rd November 2012: Scottish Annual Meeting.

Fri/Sat 23rd-24th November 2012: Annual Exhibition Meeting, British Antarctic Survey, Cambridge.

11th-13th June 2013. Annual General Meeting, Buckley Arms Hotel, Beaumaris, Anglesey

Commercial holidays For information only - the BSBI has no involvement and can accept no responsibility for trips advertised here. Botanical walks in the north Peloponnese Based on the north coast of the Peloponnese in an area that takes just three hours to go from shore-line to snow-line you can imagine the wealth of habitats and thus varied wild flowers that take advantage of the conditions. We only operate in small groups and emphasise that there are no single supplements as extras. Please visit our web site to see our itineraries and view testimonials from previous guests.