Kat Newbert
Botanist and Ecologist. BSBI county recorder for Wiltshire VC 7 & 8.
- My final @bsbibotany.bsky.social new year plant hunt was in Wiltshire with a very respectable 50 species in flower. Highlights were Senecio viscosus and Veronica agrestis and of course excellent company #Wiltsbotsoc
- Yesterday I undertook my first of three new year plant hunts. Considering it was a mainly rural walk I recorded 28 plants in flower. This included Lamium hybridum (a new hectad record), Stachys arvensis and hundreds of plants of Spergula arvensis (in bud but sadly not in flower).
- Already pre-ordered my copy
- Coming soon: 'Wild Roses of Great Britain and Ireland'. This latest title, no.26 in the series of #BSBIHandbooks for tricky plant groups, has just gone to the printers! Available for #BSBImembers to pre-order now at the discount price of £16 (vs RRP £25). Sample pages here: bsbi.org/bsbi-handboo...
- Well, aren't we all keen! This update is very overdue. Looking forward to getting my dirty botanical mitts on it.
- Asplenium trichomanes subsp. pachyrachis is the rarest subspecies of maidenhair spleenwort found growing out of damp limestone with high humidity levels. Identified by its lobed leaves from which it gets its English name, lobed maidenhair spleenwort. This one was tucked away in the Wye Valley.
- Surveying near the river Itchen in Hampshire today and pretty convinced this is Urtica dioica subsp. subinermis with only a few stinging hairs. @jo-the-botanist.bsky.social what do you think?
- Back from the fantastic @bsbibotany.bsky.social Mentha workshop run by @ambroisebaker.bsky.social. I learnt a lot, mints can be so variable. On the field meeting we found a number of different species. First photo is M. x gracilis, second is M. x smithiana and third is M. x verticillata.
- Up in Yorkshire at the moment for the @bsbibotany.bsky.social Mentha workshop. Quick walk before dinner and found a few interesting things including Bromus inermis ssp. inermis which is the more common of the two subspecies.
- After several days at a music festival having my ears blasted, I thought it would be good to balance out with some botanising. A trip down to the Dorset heaths and I finally found Dorset heath Erica ciliaris and it's hybrid with Erica tetralix = Erica x watsonii in the middle of the family photo.
- Having a fantastic week at the @bsbibotany.bsky.social summer meeting. Finding a fantastic range of sedges and grasses. Highlight of my week is finding Carex x boenninghausiana, the hybrid between remota and paniculata. Hierochloe odorata, Calamagrostis stricta and it's hybrid C. x gracilescens.
- On route to the @bsbibotany.bsky.social annual summer meeting in Melrose, stopping off in Yorkshire to see some hawkweeds. Here is Ribbleshead hawkweed Hieracium caesitium with its very delicately blotched leaves.
- Sweet galingale, Cyperus longus found on a recent botanical survey.
- Found this wonderful purple form of Ononis spinosa whilst botanising near the Severn estuary. Ive never seen it in another colour form before.
- So to balance out the orchid post earlier, here is a much better sedge find. Carex davalliana, one of the new sedges i saw this weekend. This sedge is sadly extinct in the UK but still found across much of Europe in calcareous flushes.
- @bramblebotanist.bsky.social and I have had a fantastic day exploring alpine flora in the French alps. We found Gymnadenia rhellicani, a black vanilla orchid just opening.
- Melampyrum nemorosum, wood cow wheat is abundant on the road verges in this area of france. A favourite of the trip so far.
- Fantastic #BSBIRubusWeekend2025 led by @bramblebotanist.bsky.social we saw lots of Norfolk specialities including a new Rubus species for the UK - Rubus paraplicatus one of the suberecti group.
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- Seems like a good year for Orobanche, especially yellow forms.
- A fantastic find by #NorfolkFloraGroup botanists - the yellow form of Ivy Broomrape Orobanche hederae f monochroa on a mid-Norfolk road verge. A very welcome addition to the county’s flora.
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- A few of us mad Wilts Bot Soc folks met up in the heat wave this morning. But we were rewarded with finding these monsters. Orobanche elatior forma citrina.
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