The SRPG newsletter for 2021 has now been published. It follows a standard format with the chairman’s review, reports on all our meetings last year, a number of reports on projects we have carried out and other botanical subjects, and a summary of interesting plant records in our two vice-counties. Many thanks to our new newsletter editor Karen Andrews.
Recording card updated
A corrected recording card aligned with Stace Edition 4 is now available here. This replaces the one issued in August 2021. The new cards have also been printed on yellow card and can be obtained from Helena Crouch.
Another handful of species accounts
This month we have five new species accounts in the Rare Plant Register. These are all plants that are near threatened across England but are fortunately not defined as rare or scarce in Somerset. They are: Marsh Pennywort (Hydrocotyle vulgaris), Marsh St John’s-wort (Hypericum elodes), Ragged-robin (Silene flos-cuculi), Heath Speedwell (Veronica officinalis), and Marsh Speedwell (Veronica scutellata).
Winter Twigs meeting report
Members were able to brush up their skills in identifying winter twigs at the recent meeting near Taunton. The report is available on the Meeting Reports page. Now updated with minor corrections.
New Species Accounts for RPR
New species accounts for Crambe maritima (Sea-kale), Hieracium nemophilum (Grassland Hawkweed), Potamogeton coloratus (Fen Pondweed), and Potamogeton nodosus (Loddon Pondweed) are now available in the Somerset Rare Plant Register. The accounts for Equisetum variegatum (Variegated Horsetail), Hieracium subamplifolium (Balloon-leaved Hawkweed), and Limosella aquatica (Mudwort) have been updated.
Field meeting postponed due to Storm Eunice
Due to the storm warnings today and possible transport or other disruption tomorrow the SRPG field meeting tomorrow, Saturday 19th February, has been postponed. All those who booked have been informed by email. The meeting will now take place one week later on Saturday 26th February. Please contact the meeting leader simonleach@phonecoop.coop if you have any questions.
Website updates
There has been some re-arrangement of the menus which hopefully will make things easier to find. The newsletters can now be accessed from the top-level menu. We are working on an index to the newsletters which will help with searching for useful information. The former Publications section is now “Somerset Botany” and includes a Help with ID section (containing the old Articles and Presentations). We hope to add a History (of Somerset botany) section here in due course. There is a new section on the work of our Dandelion enthusiasts under Activities > Projects.
Summer Meeting Programme
Our programme of meetings for 2022 is now available under the Activities menu, or you can download it in printable form here.
National and local effects of climate change
Phenology – or the study of the timing of natural phenomena – has been in the news this week with The Guardian reporting “Flowers arriving a month early in UK as climate heats up”. This is based on the dataset created by the Nature’s Calendar project run by the Woodland Trust and the Centre for Hydrology and Ecology. The underlying paper published by the Royal Society is here. The lead author, Prof Ulf Büntgen has also been talking about it on this week’s Inside Science on Radio 4.
Moving from the national to the local picture, Simon has kindly put together a report on last year’s First Flowering project. You can find a link to it at the end of the First Flowering page.
New Year Plant Hunt
SRPG converged on Bridgwater this year to participate in the BSBI’s annual hunt for plants in flower at New Year. The River Parrett forms the boundary of our two vice-counties here, so we divided into two teams on either side of the river. The VC5 contingent did particularly well and came fourth in the national results. Helena and Fred carried out an additional hunt in Bath, while Simon also explored his patch in Taunton. They came, respectively, third and fifth nationally, which much say something about the keenness and expertise of Somerset botanists. Full report here.