New Year Plant Hunt

Today marks the start of the BSBI New Year Plant Hunt!

If you’ve not come across it before, this fantastic Citizen Science project takes place across the whole of Britain and Ireland, this year from 29th Dec – 1st Jan. Warmer winters may be changing the flowering times of wild plants, so if you’d like to get out and about and join the hunt, you’ll be helping us contribute to vital climate research.

Everyone is welcome to help – from complete beginners to expert botanists! It’s easy and fun to do: during this 4-day period, just take a short, leisurely walk outdoors, noting wild flowers in bloom. Then submit your finds via the online form.

Don’t know your plants? No problem, BSBI provides a handy spotter sheet, tailored for your region, to help everyone – including total beginners – recognise the top species recorded in previous years.

It’s a great way to start 2025, and you can join the hunt solo, with the family or friends (or the dog?) – or why not organise a group hunt? Wrapping up warm, getting out in the fresh air and learning more about our wonderful wildflowers, what’s not to like?

Find our more, and register, at https://bsbi.org/new-year-plant-hunt

Here is a photo of the top twenty you are likely to come across. Go on, get out there and put County Galway’s Biodiversity on the map!

https://bsbi.org/new-year-plant-hunt