New Year Plant Hunt is coming!

29th December 2024 to 1st January 2025

We’d love you to join our biggest recording event -
here are some tips to help you get the most out of your Hunt

This year’s New Year Plant Hunt starts at one minute past midnight on Saturday 29th December 2024. Last year, we had a record number of people recording wild plants in flower, and we want to make this year even bigger.

We’ve been preparing some resources to help you plan and get the most out of your Hunt:

• Spotter sheets to help you identify the Top Ten and Top Twenty NYPH plants in your country - hundreds of plant species are recorded across Britain and Ireland each year but these ones are always near the top of the lists.
  New for this year: Top Ten and Top Twenty spotter sheets for England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland (both the Republic and Northern Ireland), the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man. Visit the spotter sheet page to view or download the spotter sheets for where you will be.

   

• Photography tips on how best to photograph any mystery plants, so our experts on the Support Team can identify them for you.

   

• Planning guidance to help you plan your hunt – where to go, how to record your finds and the various ways we’ll be able to help you once you’re out hunting.

   

• We’ve also started compiling a list of organised Group Hunts across Britain and Ireland, with contact details, meeting points etc.
  We’ll be adding lots more of these in the coming weeks. If you know of a group hunt that isn’t on the list, or you’d like help arranging or promoting one, email us at [email protected] - we’ll be happy to help!

More resources will follow before Christmas, but a quick reminder about why we’re inviting you to take part in the Hunt: whether you’re new to plant hunting or you’re already a botanical recorder, we need your help to discover which plants are managing to bloom in the middle of winter across Britain and Ireland.

Thousands of people take part in the Hunt every year and this is helping us build up a better understanding of how our wild plants are responding to changing autumn and winter weather patterns.

The more we know, the more we can help conserve our wild plants and all the other wildlife they support. BSBI has been supporting our wild plants, and the plant-lovers who care for them, since 1836 so you might want to check out what we do and look at the many benefits of BSBI membership. If you like what you see, why not join us?

More help on offer…