Starting with plants

[Yashca]

Hi everyone,
This is, I think, the first time I've posted on this section of the forum, and I wanted to ask for some help and advice. I've never really focussed on plants before, but it is one of my aims for next year to get better at. So first, I wondered if you could recommend some books - wildflowers, trees, grass etc., - not that I'll be able to afford all of them to start with.

My second question is about recording species. At present I have a spreadsheet where I record all the birds I have seen - with all the birds split up into groups such as finches, herons, shrikes etc.,

How would you advise splitting plants up? Trees, shrubs, flowers, ferns? I'm sure there must be some overlap there, so there must be a more coherent manner.

My third question relates to trees in particular, but may apply to other plants. If I was making note of the trees I had seen on my species list, I would obviously not include trees that had been planted in peoples gardens, or those planted down roadsides in towns and villages. So would I only include trees that I had seen in a 'wild' place? A wood or similar?

Then, with trees such as Horse Chestnut, they are usually only really found planted, or new trees growing not far away from a planted one. Would you never include one as a 'wild' tree?

Thank you for any advice you can give me.

[King Edward]

If you're recording using a spreadsheet, I'd include separate columns for family, genus and specific epithet, plus one for the common name.

For books, I'd get this one first: The Wild Flower Key.

For ferns and grasses, this one is excellent: Colour Identification Guide to the Grasses, Sedges, Rushes and Ferns of the British Isles and North Western Europe - both by Francis Rose; this one covers the groups not in the book above.

This is also very good: The Vegetative Key to the British Flora

And for a comprehensive volume: New Flora of the British Isles (not the best one to start off with).

To get going, you'd be fine with the first book above and a good hand lens. After that, I'd get the other three (probably in that order) as you can afford, or as you thing you could do with them.

[Johnny81]

This recent thread might interest you: Improving Botany Knowledge

[Yashca]

Excellent advice, thank you both. Already have a hand lens for looking at wee beasties, so now it has another use.

[aeshna5]

All of King Edward's book choices are good, but if you want to start with just one excellent book with superb illustrations I'd thoroughly recommend:

Wild Flowers of Britain + Ireland by Blamey, Fitter + Fitter.

This along with the more technical Stace are my favourite 2 books for ID

[Dorts]

Originally Posted by aeshna5

Wild Flowers of Britain + Ireland by Blamey, Fitter + Fitter.

I second that. Without doubt the best pocket guide available, (1st. edition).
I couldn't be without it!
Dorts.

[Johnny81]

The new edition of Blamey, Fitter, Fitter is unfortunately out of print though, you can pick it up from some places still but the price has been hiked!

EDIT: I should have done a recent search before my comment, just found it for £15.99 on NHBS

[Dorts]

Originally Posted by Johnny81

EDIT: I should have done a recent search before my comment, just found it for £15.99 on NHBS

I paid £17-new for my copy 8 years ago, so that's not a bad price for what is a great little book.
Dorts.

[pleb]

Hi Yashca,

Recording plants is great fun and is a good way of improving your identification skills and gaining a deeper knowledge of plants.

One book not, I think, mentioned so far is 'The Vegetative Key to the British Flora' by John Poland (WAB member, I think) and Eric Clement who has forgotten more about plants than most people know. Not essential and not for a complete newbie, but really helps when trying to identify a plant not in flower. For example, you are able to identify a dock from its leaves without too much hassle.

You touch on an important matter when you ask which trees are worthy of recording and which should be disregarded as planted and cultivated. If you go to the BSBI (Botanical Society of the British Isles) web site at
BSBI Maps Scheme: Main Menu
and enter, for example 'Cotoneaster' you will see that there are maybe fifty distribution maps for cotoneasters which survive and reproduce in the 'wild' in Britain and have been recorded by people.

So personally I will record any plant that is surviving in the wild, even though originally it may have been planted. It is somewhat arbitrary and depends on your point of view. In Plymouth city centre, there are palm trees, Trachycarpus fortunei, planted in beds by the city council and this year there were masses of seedling palms which had germinated amongst the begonias surrounding the palms. When the council cleared the begonias in the autumn they destroyed the seedlings. But I had recorded them and my local BSBI Recorder accepted the record. I could give you many more examples but I would encourage you to record any plant (tree, shrub or herbaceous plant) that is surviving in the wild without human aid. Many plants are cultivated in gardens and are not recorded obviously. But if the garden plant was to seed itself on the garden wall and persist there, most recorders would agree that this would constitute a valid record.

So thank you for raising this point which is important. Many plants have escaped from cultivation, such as the Turkey oak, and are expanding their range. The person who first recorded the Turkey Oak in the 'wild' may have wondered, as you are doing, whether the plant should be recorded or not but now all recorders would record this tree and it is by looking at old records that an understanding can be gained of how this tree has spread since its introduction.

So good luck to you, Yashka, and I hope you have lots of fun recording the plants you see.

One last point. You are going down the right track by creating spreadsheets for your records. I just wondered if you were aware that there are programmes such as 'Mapmate' used by amateur and professionals alike, that allows you to make records quickly and easily and will enable you to analyse your records and produce your own distribution maps.

Best wishes,

Phil

[Meta menardi]

Originally Posted by pleb

One last point. You are going down the right track by creating spreadsheets for your records. I just wondered if you were aware that there are programmes such as 'Mapmate' used by amateur and professionals alike, that allows you to make records quickly and easily and will enable you to analyse your records and produce your own distribution maps.

Best wishes,

Phil

And if I could add one small detail to that, these programs are affordable.