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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…
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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.
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Snowdrop Identification Simplified
Get started identifying a variety of cultivated and wild Snowdrops with new crib sheet for gardeners and budding galanthophiles
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Lord Armstrong and the Exotic Plants of Jesmond Dene
Jesmond Dene is a fascinating place. Here we explore some of the exotic plants found within and their relationship with Lord Armstrong.
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Wildflowers in Winter: The New Year Plant Hunt 2025
As is customary at year’s end, much of my time over the last week was spent darting about the local area plant hunting as part…
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Exploring North East Nature in 2024
A look back at a varied and exciting 2024, both here on Common By Nature and while searching for wildlife across the wider North East.
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 a major passion of mine, and whether it’s ferns, snowdrops, grasses, ancient woodland plants, or even humble pavement weeds, I spend much of my spare time seeking out and learning about our remarkable wild flora.
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.
Coming Soon: An Urban Flora of Newcastle
For the last few years, I’ve been working on what I hope will soon become the first ‘urban flora’ covering Newcastle and North Tyneside. With surveying complete, and writing well underway, the finished book should come to fruitition very soon. Until then, a few updates can be found below.
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.
Contact
Please use the adjacent form to get in touch if you have any queries about plants, places or content mentioned on this blog. Enquiries about talks, training opportunities or media are also most welcome.
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