Last year my wife and I completed the BSBI New Year Plant Hunt for the first time.On 2 January this year, we went out and covered the same area as last year to starting building up come comparative data for the plants on that particular lane.
This year we found:
Red Dead Nettle (Lamium purpureum)
Petty Spurge (Euphorbia peplus)
Groundsel (Senecio vulgaris)
Daisy (Bellis perennis)
Dandelion (Taraxacum officinale agg.)
Wavy Bittercress (Cardamine flexuosa)
In the previous plant hunt we had found Field Madder too, but this wasn't present this year. We noticed that there had been a lot of work done in the front gardens that open up onto the lane since we'd last been there (a few months previous). This may well provide a habitat for some new species next year.
While we only cover a small area, which only provides a few records, it's really nice that the BSBI recognise our efforts and this year we were awarded the New Year Plant Hunt Family Values award. This is because it's our second year sending in records for the Plan Hunt and because of Meeple (our baby bump). While he didn't have a choice about coming along, we're certainly hoping to get him into recognising species and joining us on future plant hunts.
I'm looking forward to next year's Plant Hunt, especially as our little boy will be joining us.
I think this is such a lovely idea and really gets you noticing what is growing - I did a similar thing with a sq mtr at my worksheds, but counted the different grasses growing in it - taught me a lot about grass.
ReplyDeleteThat's cool. I'm really interested in different grasses, but no yet very good in identifying them! Could be worth uploading your records to iRecord?
DeleteAwww, that's something to look forward to--next year's hunt. And in the present: Congrats on the award. The plant hunt sounds like a rewarding and fun project!
ReplyDeleteThanks! It certainly makes me feel productive after lots of chocolate during the Christmas period! You can hunt for up to 3 hours, but we do much less than that.
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