The Botany Section

President: Nick Hudson, Tel: 07768 822340
Secretary: Peter Hilton, Tel: 0117 968 8031

The Bristol Botanical region contains a wider range of habitats for its size than many comparable areas of Britain, and includes several SSSIs. The diversity of the local flora is well known and has a written history from the 16th century. The Avon Gorge has been recognised as an outstanding site of national importance with its Rare Data Book plants, and other areas of national importance are the Gordano valley, the Mendip hills and the Somerset levels.. Ancient woodlands, saltmarsh and limestone grasslands are also important in the area.

The Section holds monthly indoor meetings through the winter on a wide variety of subjects: this last year our talks included Conservation and the National Trust and a simplified account of the Control of Flower Structure, the result of the research carried out by one of our members. We also had talks on the Flora of Cape Province and Namibia.

We have reports on the History, Ecology and Management of local reserves. Summer meetings include visits to a range of habitats easily accessible from Bristol often led by a reserve manager or specialist in the field. Additional evening meetings are led by members. These are well attended. There is an especial welcome to those who are less experienced in the identification of plants and who wish to improve their skills.

This summer we have visited the Avon Gorge, Arno’s Vale, Tyntesfield and Snuff Mills to name a few.

We make use of the BNS Library with its good reference section on all aspects of botany and submit titles for acquisition. Journals are taken of botanical interest such as British Wildlife.

We have established links with the Wildlife Trust and other recording groups including the Somerset Rare Plants Group and the Mendip Survey Team

Members were involved in writing the recently published Flora of the Bristol Region, an Atlas Flora invaluable for site references and distribution. We currently submit botanical records to the Bristol Records Centre and to the national database recorded on Mapmate. All records are studied for inclusion in our annual report, Bristol Botany compiled by Dr Clive Lovatt.