The last few weeks have been very busy for the Botany section. On the 20th May four of the section went to Guernsey for 5 days to join the Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland Annual Summer meeting. There were over 40 BSBI botanists present, including many of our eminent members who are experts in their field. It was an excellent meeting with the opportunity to learn more identification skills especially when dealing with some of the trickier species like Fescues.
Photo – Orobanche hedera Ivy Broomrape in Guernsey
After the Guernsey BSBI meeting, a few botanists who had attended the summer meeting came to Jersey for the weekend. When visiting botanists come to our island we often record new species or subspecies. One very interesting record was Galium constrictum Slender Marsh-bedstraw to the north of St. Ouen’s Pond
Photo – BSBI Jersey meeting 2024
In early June Chris and Hazel Metherell visited the island, thanks to a generous grant from the Ecology fund. Chris is the BSBI recorder for Northumberland and a past president of the BSBI. He is also the referee for Euphrasia Eyebrights. Chris is a patient and very knowledgeable botanist who led several botanical walks and he gave us interesting and useful tips and explanations about many of our local plants.
Photo – Chris Metherell leading a botanical walk in St. Ouen
At the end of June a gang of Jersey Societe botanists met up with some botanists from Societe Guernesiaise, and a member of La Societe Sercquise on Sark. The purpose of our visit was to plant out some seedlings of Logfia gallica Narrow-leaved Cudweed raised by Jean Drydale from seed collected from the small population of this plant found in a quarry on Little Sark, the only site of this plant in the UK.
Photo – Jean Drydale planting out Logfia gallica Narrow-leaved Cudweed in Sark
