I love the BSBI New Year Plant Hunt. Each year, this nifty citizen science project provides the perfect reason to head outside, brave the winter air, and find some interesting plants – not something I would have considered just a few years ago! Better still, the project is providing some valuable data about how our wild and naturalised plants are responding to a changing climate. A win win, really!
With only a few days of the holiday left, I confess I have gone a little crackers this year when it comes to the New Year Plant Hunt, with fourwalks in different corners of the local area. A nice way to burn off those Christmas calories perhaps?
Tynemouth
On Saturday morning, the first session of my new ‘Botanist’s Year’ course provided the perfect excuse for some group plant hunting. Meeting attendees at Tynemouth, we set about recording flowering plants growing in sea defences, coastal grassland, priory walls and nearby streets. Cutting a long story short, there wasn’t overly much to see with just 21 species noted in bloom. That said, some of these were rather nice with a good showing of Common Snowdrop (Galanthus nivalis), ample Alexanders (Smyrnium olusatrum) and even a solitary example of Fool’s-parsley (Aethusa cynapium) – I am not sure I have ever seen that one flowering in winter.
Of course, the reliable winter-blooms featured in our total too: Daisy (Bellis perennis), Annual Meadow-grass (Poa annua), Red Dead-nettle (Lamium purpureum) and Ragwort (Jacobaea vulgaris) to name but a few. The group also encountered a stray Garden Pansy (Viola x wittrockiana) in a pavement crack – a surprisingly common occurence.
No visit to Tynemouth would be complete without a moment of appreciation for the copious amount of Wild Cabbage (Brassica oleracea) which grows on site as a relict of cultivation by local monks. They weren’t in flower on this occasion, mind you.
Heaton
For the last four years Matt and I have carried out an annual New Year Plant Hunt on the streets of Heaton, close to home. While being awful good fun, this has also allowed us to gain a good idea of localised changes in the flowering times of several species. Suffice to say, 2023 seems to be a bit of a poor year and in three hours, we recorded just 31 species compared to the 50+ of 2022. Perhaps it was was a touch of frost, or even over-zealous weeders?
The usual supects mentioned previous all featured in our Heaton hunt and by large, most of the plants found were ones you would expect to see in winter. Neophytes (human introductions) in Trailing Bellflower (Campanula poscharskyana), Adria Bellflower (Campanula portenschlagiana) and Yellow Corydalis (Pseudofumaria lutea) that seem to flower year-round and typical winter wildflowers in Common Whitlowgrass (Erophila verna) and White Dead-nettle (Lamium album). It was, however, interesting to note several grasses still in flower with sightings of Water Bent (Polypogon viridis), False Oat-grass (Arrhenatherum elatius) and Wall Barley (Hordeum murinum). I wonder what next year will bring?
Scotswood
The most botanically interesting hunt of the week now and a new route for Matt and I at Scotswood. Scotswood Road and its associated grassland, scrub and industrial plots is usually rather interesting and in total, we chalked up 31 flowering plants during our yomp. The ‘common ones’ featured heavily again with examples in Gorse (Ulex europeaus) and Feverfew (Tanacetum parthenium) but there were surprises also. On a particularly nice stretch of verge, we found both Field (Knautia arvensis) and Small Scabious (Scabiosa columbaria) in flower alongside Musk-mallow (Malva moschata). Quite a nice display for winter! Elsewhere, we noted Narrow-leaved Ragwort (Senecio inaequidens) and Smooth Hawk’s-beard (Crepis capillaris) while Common Vetch (Vicia sativa) featured surprisingly frequently.
For once, it was actually the non-flowering plants that proved most interesting at Scotswood. Having sadly lost many of them to the mower in spring, it was fabulous to note well over 200 Bee Orchid (Ophrys apifera) rosettes on nearby areas of amenity grassland and some recent roadworks provided a sighting of Parsley-piert (Aphanes arvensis), an entirely new one for the urban flora!
Ouseburn
New Year’s Day now and the last New Year Plant Hunt organised through the Natural History Society of Northumbria. Setting off to explore the streets of Heaton and later, taking a detour to the Ouseburn Valley, we were thrilled to find 35 species of wild and naturalised plant in flower. Better still, the sun was shining – a rare thing of late!
Once again, the usual suspects were out in force but what was more interesting was the abundance of typically ruderal/arable plants blooming in forgotten corners and neglected planters. As a group, we were particularly excited to find Small Nettle (Urtica urens) and Green-field Speedwell (Veronica agrestis), followed closely by Ribbed Melilot (Melilotus officinalis), Cut-leaved Dead-nettle (Lamium hybridum) and Small-flowered Crane’s-bill (Geranium pusillum). Down by the Ouseburn, the first Snowdrops (Galanthus nivalis) of the year had emerged too. Always nice to see…
All in all, a lovely way to spend New Year’s Day and a great way to round off a busy week jampacked with plants!
