Calling all #NationalPlantMonitoringScheme volunteers in #NorthernIreland! We've two fantastic training days on how to survey an #NPMS square: Cookstown, Thursday 25 June ( tinyurl.com/y52bxzn2) Crumlin Glen, Saturday 4 July (tinyurl.com/3f2b8f4t) #BotanicalSkillsNI #FieldSkills #Volunteering

Exciting news! BSBI has received 3yrs funding from National Parks & Wildlife Service for the Irish Grasslands & Targeted Aquatic Plants projects. If you're keen to build your grassland id skills or you'd like an intro to aquatics, watch this space! @npwsireland.bsky.social @bsbibotany.bsky.social

Marsh bedstraw, ragged-robin, common spotted orchid, and sheep's sorrel spotted yesterday in Oxford Island, Armagh #wildflowerhour

Together last year we made >300,000 plant records in Scotland via #BSBIRecordingApp, #iRecord or #iNaturalist, and every one you collect contributes to plant conservation! #BSBICountyRecorders ensure they go to support Red Lists, Atlas projects, open data via #NBN and more... Thank you everyone! 🙏

Many of our volunteering opportunities are open to all, but we offer even more options for #BSBImembers who can apply to join a committee. Events & Comms committee organises activities & events eg #NewYearPlantHunt. Skills & Training Committee focuses on #BotanyForEveryone. bsbi.org/about/people...

Anyone fancy a quick trip next week?! @bsbibotany.bsky.social's Botanical Skills Project in Northern Ireland has put together a fantastic programme of field meetings and training events, not to mention their brilliant winter webinar series that you can enjoy from home bsbi.org/take-part/pr...

Learning to tell grasses, sedges & rushes apart? 🌿 Sedges usually have solid, triangular stems 🌿 Rushes typically have smooth, round stems 🌿 Grasses often have distinct nodes A useful beginners ID webinar for improving botanical skills: www.youtube.com/watch?v=CHIz... #BotanicalSkillsNI #PlantID

BSBI has always been proud to support #YoungDarwinScholarship! All the Young Darwins receive free @bsbibotany.bsky.social digital membership & are invited to our special student networking event. Please repost & spread the word about this fab initiative run by our friends @fieldstudiesc.bsky.social

Help us map Northern Ireland's wild plants! The #BotanicalSkillsNI project is building a community of botanical recorders to support nature recovery. Learn via our webinars: bit.ly/BSBI-NI-Webi... Check out our project and events: bsbi.org/take-part/pr... Let's make every record count!

Are you based in Northern Ireland and taking part in the National Plant Monitoring Scheme @npms.bsky.social ? We have a great event for you on 19 May, with #WildFlowerID at Ecos Nature Park, Ballymena in the morning followed by training on how to survey a #NPMS square: bsbi.org/take-part/ev...

I am starting a PhD and am looking for grassland restoration/rewilding sites in Northern Ireland! Please forward this flier to anyone who might be interested in having their land surveyed for fungi!

The YNU's latest publication, Yorkshire Plants 2024, is now available in the YNU shop. This new annual report from the YNU’s botany section compliments the joint @bcyorkshire.bsky.social annual Butterfly and Moth Report. You can purchase your copy for £5 here 👇 www.ynu.org.uk/join-the-ynu...

Nature-lovers across the globe will come together on 24 April for an international BioBlitz! Botanical Skills Northern Ireland Project has an event at Carnmoney Hill, Belfast & all you need to join in is a smartphone & the free @inaturalist.bsky.social app! www.tickettailor.com/events/botan...

Thanks to all the @bsbibotany.bsky.social Northern Ireland botanical recorders who joined us yesterday in Lough Neagh for a start of the season meet-up. We kicked off with Prunus ID, moving onto NI's temperate rainforest, studied scurvygrass samples, and spent a lovely afternoon recording together

Great article by @donnalferguson.bsky.social in today's @theguardian.com about Darwin & Henslow's plant specimens & illustrations and the fab new @cubotanicgarden.bsky.social Certificate in Botany: www.theguardian.com/environment/... Links for this course & many others here: bsbi.org/learn/traini...

Based in Northern Ireland? Want to support @npms.bsky.social & help unlock plant survey sites across NI? Then we have a fabulous volunteer opportunity for you! Check it out: bsbi.org/about/people...

I saw a Facebook post recently about #author Maria S. Cummins, and how her first #novel The Lamplighter outsold Moby Dick and The Scarlet Letter in 1854. So I hunted down a copy. Very much looking forward to #reading this! #booksky #femaleauthor

Yesterday our Botanical Skills Northern Ireland Team practiced how to use underwater drones to collect under-recorded aquatic plant specimens! The drone will also be used for our @bsbiireland.bsky.social #AquaticPlantProject & we hope to raise money for a 2nd drone to survey Scottish lochs.

Join this year’s #CityNatureChallenge, April 24–27 & contribute to the world’s largest #CommunityScience event 🌍 With National Museums NI, Wild Belfast, @bsbibotany.bsky.social & BugLife All you need is the free @inaturalist.bsky.social app📲 Join the project: www.inaturalist.org/projects/cit...

First spin on my shiny new #spinningwheel - I'm terrible but enthusiastic!

Thanks to Charles Shier for giving so much time and expertise this week, we've had a great crowd of new conifer students pass through the workshops!

Whorled Caraway, Trocdaris verticillata. 15-30 threadlike leaflets, increasing in size along rachis, appears whorled. Stems striate and often purplish at base. Hairless. Mild celery smell. Distribution map taken from BSBI Plant Atlas 2020.

🌸Got a botanical study in mind?🌾🌼You can apply for a helpful @bsbibotany.bsky.social Study Grant- but do it soon: the deadline is 31 January. More info at bsbi.org/learn/grants.... @atu-ie.bsky.social @uniofgalway.bsky.social @tcddublin.bsky.social @phoebeobrien.bsky.social @mikekally.bsky.social

Are you planning to undertake a project in 2026 which involves collecting plant-related data? Would you like <£1,000 towards your costs? Apply for a #BSBIPlantStudyGrant! Here's how: bsbi.org/learn/grants... Read how a #BSBIGrant helped Katherine research ancient meadows: bsbi.org/blog/2026/01...

🦋🌿Hiring 12 x Botanists or Entomologists for 2026 field surveys in England! 4-month, full-time roles from late April to early September. Field sites in Yorkshire, Devon, Warwickshire, Kent/Sussex, Lincolnshire/Cambridge, Essex/Suffolk. Apply now: ceh.wd3.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/CEH_Ca... 🧪

Joined the @irishwildlifetrust.bsky.social #NewYearPlantHunt today in Bull Island, we found to find 26 flowering species, inc. Rapistrum rugosum. Also spotted 13 species along footpaths near the entrance to the causeway, inc. Sun Spurge @bsbibotany.bsky.social

Just been out recording my @bsbibotany.bsky.social #NewYearPlantHunt What plants can you spot in flower before 4th January? #ScienceIsEverywhere #BeCurious #DrJoScience #Plants

40 species on today's #NewYearPlantHunt around the Ouseburn area of Newcastle. BBC Look North even stopped by for a while... 🎥 @bsbibotany.bsky.social

We've been working with @metoffice.gov.uk to analyse 10 years of #NewYearPlantHunt data. The analysis provides the clearest evidence yet of how rising temperatures are impacting the British & Irish flora, with knock-on effects for all our wildlife. www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Delighted to explore Drumaness Village in Co Down today for a #NewYearPlantHunt with some of the locals. We managed to find 9 species flowering, interestingly some were not on the NI top 10! @bsbibotany.bsky.social

Lovely to chat just now to Nick Eardley on BBC Radio 5 Live about #NewYearPlantHunt on back of our work with @metoffice.gov.uk Plants are blooming out of synch with the wildlife that depend on them: how worried should we be? Catch our chat again here, starts at 17.40: www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

Kicked off my #NewYearPlantHunt with a quick walk around the block and found 10 flowering wildflowers in just over 10 minutes! @bsbibotany.bsky.social

Hopeful male Hazel (Corylus avellana) catkins getting their pollen ready early, in chilly North Leitrim. (Sharing these photos for the sheer unlikeliness of them coming out at all...trembly tree, gale force winds, flappy phone case and the wrong glasses 🤣) @bsbibotany.bsky.social #wildflowerhour

So, what do we do with the #NewYearPlantHunt data that 1000s of #BSBImembers & supporters have collected over the past decade? 1 example: we joined forces with @metoffice.gov.uk to investigate correlations between rising temperatures & your plant records. Initial results: bsbi.org/about/news/l...

What's the perfect #ChristmasGift for the plant-lover in your life? If they're not already #BSBImembers, how about a year's membership of @bsbibotany.bsky.social? Choose a printed membership pack, posted to your loved one, or a digital pack pinging into their Inbox on Christmas Day. bsbi.org/gift

Things I'm doing instead of studying.... #rigidheddleloom #weaving #LastMinuteChristmasPresents

Help us unlock the Plants of the Past, by supporting volunteers to digitise decades of paper records & inform C21st science! @biggive.bsky.social From #GivingTuesday to 9 Dec, we have £10K in matched funds to unlock: every donation, however small, will be doubled: donate.biggive.org/campaign/a05...

Today, we learned about conifer identification in the grounds of Castlewellan Forest Park's stunning walled garden. Thanks to Charles Shier for such an educational day! @bsbiireland.bsky.social @bsbibotany.bsky.social

Today as part of the Botanical Skills Northern Ireland project, Mel Flexen introduced a group to the botany and ecology of lowland raised bogs in Peatlands Park, Armagh. Plenty to see, even at this tine of year!

Best time to join the growing ranks of #BSBImembers? In October to get 15 months of benefits for price of 12: that's when 100s of people inc @markavery.bsky.social & @alunsalt.bsky.social joined! 2nd best time? In November, to enjoy 14 months of benefits: bsbipublicity.blogspot.com/2025/10/bsbi...

Thanks to all who joined us in Oxfird Island to celebrate #NPMS10! Between talks, we practiced Wildflower ID, indicators knowledge, hedgerow surveys, and @organicbotanic.bsky.social took us through botanical photography using a camera phone!

I'm delighted that we have a whole range of talks from our Northern Ireland Botanical Skills Project taking place this winter on Tuesday evenings. Want to learn more about conifers? Rushes? Clubmosses? Hawthorns? Plant Pathogenic Fungi? ROBOTS?? See them all here: bsbi.org/botanical-sk...

Want to up your #WildFlowerID game this winter? We just launched our Winter Webinar programme! 7-8pm, every Tuesday from 4 Nov - 10 Feb. Thanks to funding from @daera-ni.gov.uk, these 10 great plant ID webinars are FREE for all of you to attend! Programme & booking links: bsbi.org/botanical-sk...

Want to learn more about the National Plant Monitoring Scheme #npms? Join our 10th anniversary celebrations on volunteer day in Oxford Island, Co Armagh on 25th October (www.tickettailor.com/events/botan...), or in Glenarm, Co Antrim on 6th November (www.tickettailor.com/events/botan...)

Dog walk sightings #fungi #mushrooms

Yesterday, NI Training Officers Kim and Jo led two groups on a tree Identification walk through Corbie Wood in Lagan Valley Regional Park, Belfast. We got to see the impressive 500-year old Belvoir Oak, amongst many other species of tree - and some beautiful fungi too!

Visited Castlewellan, Co Down, and saw the multistemmed Sequoiadendron giganteum, a redwood grown from seed brought back from California and planted as a single sapling in 1856. It sports an amazing 19 trunks and is absolutely mind-blowing!

Our annual membership special offer opens today! Join us this month & you'll enjoy 15 months of membership benefits for the price of 12. Those benefits are so numerous & fabulous you'll have to head over here to see them all: bsbipublicity.blogspot.com/2025/10/bsbi... Then join us! bsbi.org/join-us

I was delighted to see the Belvoir Oak yesterday during a visit to Lagan Valley yesterday. This stunning Oak is approx 500 years old, with an 8m girth. An ancient pollarded pedunculate oak, now missing most of its upper branches and its heartwood, it's still putting on a show and producing acorns.

On Saturday, we held a Northern Ireland Recorders Meeting in the Lough Neagh Discovery Centre. From far and wide, recorders came to learn about willow identification and hybrids, then roamed the site, willow-hunting. @bsbibotany.bsky.social @mikekally.bsky.social