The New Year Plant Hunt is a national scheme, organised by the BSBI (Botanical Society of Britain & Ireland, see bsbi.org/new-year-plant-hunt). Suitable for beginners and experts, they are a great way to get to see some wild flowers and brighten up your winter! We have organised a New Year Plant Hunt at Natural Surroundings each year since 2015 and they have developed into very sociable events with just a hint of competativeness. The next ‘hunt’ will take place on Thursday 2nd January 2024, meeting at the café at 10.30 am for a walk around our grounds and the nearby estate (maximum 3 hours). There is no charge and no need to book.
NEW YEAR PLANT HUNT 2 January 2019
We pushed ourselves and the clock to the limit today to get a good total and it certainly paid off. In a three-hour walk encompassing Natural Surroundings, some nearby beet fields (with the kind permission of the Bayfield Estate) and Glandford village, we managed to find no less than 71 wild-growing plants in flower, beating our best total. Although cooler than recent days, the weather was kind to us, with threatening clouds producing just a sprinkle of rain before it brightened up, and the promised northerly winds never really biting. Here’s the list:
Common Fumitory
NEW YEAR PLANT HUNT 2 January 2018
A group of 19 of us set out this morning to see how many plants we could find in flower. The New Year Plant Hunt is a BSBI (Botanic Society of the Britain and Ireland) initiative, now in it’s seventh year, and this was our forth year at Natural Surroundings. In good weather we headed down the valley to Glandford, explored an arable field that had been left as stubble over winter and then returned to our café just as it began to rain. On the way back several of us had a pleasant surprise – we heard loud mewing noises, stopped to listen and three young otters swam down the river beside us! The following list, a respectable 52 species, are the plants we found in flower.
Parsley Piert
Petty Spurge
Dwarf Spurge
Dog’s Mercury
Field Pansy
Tutsan
Small-flowered Cranesbill
Hedge Mustard
Rape
Wild Radish
Swine Cress
Wavy Bittercress
Shepherd’s Purse
Flixweed
Broad-leaved Dock
Red Campion
Thyme-leaved Sandwort
Common Mouse-ear
Scarlet Pimpernel
Field Madder
Green Alkanet
Common Field Speedwell
Sharp-leaved Fluellen
Small Toadflax
White Dead-nettle
Red Dead-nettle
Selfheal
Marsh Thistle
Common Knapweed
Dandelion
Smooth Hawksbeard
Nipplewort
Smooth Sowthistle
Prickly Sowthistle
Daisy
Blue Fleabane
Canadian Fleabane
Feverfew
Scentless Mayweed
Common Ragwort
Groundsel
Winter Heliotrope
Small Teasel
Field Scabious
Cow Parsley
Hogweed
Hazel
Annual Meadow Grass
Cock’s-foot
Hybrid fescue x Schedolium braunii
Perennial Ryegrass
False Oat Grass
NEW YEAR PLANT HUNT 2 January 2017
Despite a keen wind on the ‘high tops’ and a couple of showers, we were joined by a dozen or more friends and visitors for a lovely walk around the Bayfield Estate, surprising ourselves by finding 43 species of wild plant in flower. This is not as good as last year but, given the recent hard frosts that had put paid to many blooms (we did not even find Herb Robert in flower), our total was pretty respectable. We were helped by the presence of several children – not only keen and sharp-eyed, but also closer to the ground! As usual, the best areas were arable margins, where late-flowering annuals could still be found. Highlights included Flixweed, Sharp-leaved Fluellen and lots of Dwarf Spurge, all scarce arable weeds that would be good to find at the height of the season in August or September. We also found good numbers of Blue Fleabane in full flower on a temporary bank, a reflection of the chalk that lies close to the surface in many parts of the estate. The full list is as follows:
Common Gorse
Small Nettle
Sun Spurge
Petty Spurge
Dwarf Spurge
Dog’s Mercury
Field Pansy
Small-flowered Cranesbill
Common Mallow
Flixweed
Hedge Mustard
Black Mustard
Wild Raddish
Shepherd’s Purse
Red Campion
Thyme-leaved Sandwort
Common Chickweed
Common Mouse-ear
Corn Spurrey
Field Madder
Green Alkanet
Common Field Speedwell
Wall Speedwell
Sharp-leaved Fluellen
Ivy-leaved Toadflax
White Dead-nettle
Red Dead-nettle
Cut-leaved Dead-nettle
Musk Thistle
Dandelion
Smooth Sowthistle
Daisy
Blue Fleabane
Canadian Fleabane
Feverfew
Yarrow
Pineappleweed
Scentless Mayweed
Groundsel
Hogweed
Ivy
Annual Meadow Grass
Cock’s-foot
NEW YEAR PLANT HUNT 2 January 2016
As part of the Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland’s New Year Plant Hunt we took a 3-hour walks from Natural Surroundings down to Glandford and back. We managed to find the impressive total of 67 wild-growing plants in flower (and could have added a few more if we had hopped over a barbed wire fence into a nearby beet field!). Here are the 67 species recorded:
Common Poppy
Bulbous Buttercup
Creeping Buttercup
Meadowsweet
Creeping Cinquefoil
Wood Avens
Small Nettle
Pellitory of the Wall
Sun Spurge
Petty Spurge
Field Pansy
Hybrid pansy V. x contempta
Dovesfoot Cranesbill
Herb Robert
Flixweed
Hedge Mustard
Rape
Wild Radish
Swine Cress
Lesser Swine Cress
Field Pennycress
Shepherd’s Purse
Wavy Bittercress
Red Campion
White Campion
Common Chickweed
Scarlet Pimpernel
Green Alkanet
Black Nightshade
Common Field Speedwell
Germander Speedwell
Thyme-leaved Speedwell
Ivy-leaved Toadflax
White Dead-nettle
Red Dead-nettle
Black Horehound
Musk Thistle
Catsear
Dandelion
Smooth Hawksbeard
Bristly Oxtongue
Nipplewort
Smooth Sowthistle
Prickly Sowthistle
Daisy
Mexican Fleabane
Blue Fleabane
Canadian Fleabane
Feverfew
Yarrow
Scentless Mayweed
Pineappleweed
Common Ragwort
Groundsel
Winter Heliotrope
Red Valarian
Hogweed
Alexanders
Wild Angelica
Common Gorse
Cherry Plum
Bramble
Hazel
Ivy
Wild Oats
Cock’s-foot
Annual Meadow Grass
Total 67