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An Encounter with Lady Clermont’s Spleenwort (Asplenium x clermontiae)
A quick account of an overdue run-in with a Northumbrian speciality – Asplenium x clermontiae
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Identifying Crocuses
Get started identifying the wild and naturalised snowdrops you’re most likely to spot in a brand-new crib sheet suitable for beginners.
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Identifying Cotoneasters
Get started identifying the naturalised cotoneasters likely to be recorded in Northumberland and several others that may occur in the future.
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Identifying Clovers
Get started identifying the wild and naturalised clovers likely to be recorded in Northumberland.
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Newcastle’s Urban Flora – A Project Update
An account of a busy season recording for what I’m loosely calling an ‘Urban Flora of Newcastle’.
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Places to Visit: Silverlink Park
A botanical hotspot tucked away amid industrial units, Silverlink Park is a great place to visit come summer.
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 – Out Now!
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.
