Sunday 8 January 2017

New Year Plant Hunt 2017

Wild Reekie celebrated its first anniversary by repeating its first ever event: the BSBI New Year Plant Hunt on Blackford Hill. 

We were joined by members of the Edinburgh Botanists facebook group so we had a real mix of knowledge levels, from people who had only just arrived in Scotland and therefore didn't know any of the local plants, to serious experts in Edinburgh flora.

Unlike last year, our records will form part of the iRecord national database, thanks to the new New Year Plant Hunt App.


Despite our extra expertise, we didn't find quite as many flowers as last year, and it felt like they were harder to find, perhaps because of the cold spell before Christmas. It will be interesting to see how our results compare to those from around the country.



Our full list was:


  1. Ivy
  2. Gorse
  3. Common Ragwort
  4. Pineappleweed
  5. Annual Meadow-grass
  6. White Dead-nettle
  7. Ribwort Plantain
  8. Cock's-foot
  9. Festuca x Lolium?
  10. Grey Alder
  11. Red Campion
  12. Smooth Hawk's-beard
  13. Daisy
  14. Wavy Bitter-cress
  15. Wood Sage
  16. Hazel
  17. Common Alder
  18. Common Mouse-ear subsp. holosteoides
  19. Barren Strawberry
  20. Yarrow
Many thanks to Gus for making the list! 

It was great to get outdoors and to have something to hunt for in the natural world, but I'm certainly hoping to have some more botany trips when flowers really are in season!

To be notified of future Wild Reekie events follow our Meetup group
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