-
The Best Plant App for Beginner Botanists: Comprehensive Edition
With so many plant ID apps available, it can be hard to know where to turn when trying to identify that pesky plant. Here, we…
-
William Turner’s Herb-paris
Known as oneberrie in historic accounts, Herb-paris was first described in England by the father of English botany, William Turner.
-
The Urban Ferns of Newcastle and North Tyneside
Observations on the urban ferns of Newcastle and North Tyneside, inspired by ongoing work to document the area’s urban flora.
-
Urban Flora of Newcastle & North Tyneside – 2025 Update
Though it beggars belief, I am now four years into creating An Urban Flora for Newcastle and North Tyneside. Now seemed like as good a…
-
Signs of Spring in the Tyne Valley
The snowdrops and crocuses that dominated late winter are now spent with other signs of spring beginning to appear in the near area.
-
Snowdrop Identification Simplified
Get started identifying a variety of cultivated and wild Snowdrops with new crib sheet for gardeners and budding galanthophiles
Current Fascinations
By my own admission, I am prone to falling down rabbit holes from time to time. Typically, this involves deep-diving into a particular subject and learning as much as possible before, inevitably, another topic comes along to take its place. Regardless, below you’ll find my current areas of interest…
Botanical Bits
Botany is my main interest, and whether it’s ferns, snowdrops, grasses, ancient woodland plants, or even humble pavement weeds, I try to spend as much time as possible seeking out our wild plants.
North East Botany
Here you’ll find musings on plant identification, trip reports, sightings from walks and courses and just about anything else relating to botany in North East England.
Urban Flora of Newcastle and North Tyneside
The Urban Flora of Newcastle and North Tyneside is the first comprehensive account of the wild plants growing across the Newcastle and North Tyneside conurbation, one of the largest in the UK.
Based on six years of fieldwork, the book documents more than 1,120 native and naturalised plants -around a third of Britain’s entire flora.
Meet James
Born and raised in North East England, James is a botanist, general naturalist and biological recorder with a passion for sharing the joys of North East nature with others.
He currently works as Senior Naturalist for the Natural History Society of Northumbria (NHSN) and volunteers as a vice-county recorder for the Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland (BSBI), both of which allow him to spend ample time outdoors leading trips, courses, surveys and guided walks.
