It’s safe to say everyone has had an unusual year this year. A consequence for many of our team was that they weren’t able to attend any training courses they’d been booked on, some of which were botany related. This was highlighted by many of the team in their annual reviews in July, so we decided to run our own botany training day.

Principal Ecologist Laura Grant led a walk following the Cothill Fen Wild Walk produced by Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire Wildlife Trust (BBOWT). The walk traverses Cothill Fen which is a Special Area of Conservation (SAC) containing the largest area of alkaline fen in central England. As part of this SAC, BBOWT’s nature reserves at Dry Sandford Pit, Parsonage Moor and Lashford Lane are a nationally important collection of wildlife sites which include fen, reedbed, wet woodland and calcareous grassland.

During our 4.5 hour walk we identified over 140 plant species, paying particular attention to grasses, sedges and rushes which can be tricky to identify. We produced our own reference guide using samples collected in the field and spent time keying out various plants and sharing our knowledge relating to similar species and key identification features.

Some highlights of the day included:

learning the differences between closely related species such as false oat-grass and yellow oat-grass, dog’s mercury and annual mercury and black poplar and hybrid black poplar;
finding barberry, a species none of us had seen before;
encountering several Juncus sp. within a small area so we could easily learn the differences; and
finding many species associated with calcareous grassland we don’t frequently encounter such as wild basil, fairy flax and wild parsnip.

We each had a picnic and had the chance to take a breather from report writing and bat surveys which can be all-consuming at this time of year. It was also a nice opportunity to have a socially distanced get together as a team, something we haven’t done since early March. We realised it was the first time we’d been together with our three new starters who joined us in April too.

What next?

A fun day was had by all and we vowed to do one again next year, perhaps in May or June to focus on arable weeds and woodland plants.

Many of the team intend to take their FISC assessments next year. A Field Identification Skills Certificate is a simple, affordable test that determines your botanical skill level on a scale from 1 (beginner) to 5 (professional) with 6 being awarded in exceptional cases. FISC is becoming established as the industry standard for assessing botanical survey skills therefore we’re keen all our team are up to a good standard and able to confidently undertake habitat surveys in a wide range of environments.

For those that love a good list below is some of what was found during the day:

Perennial rye grass

Yarrow

Majoram

Oxeye daisy

Cocks foot

Fo grass

Agrimony

Cow parsley

Black medick

Hawthorn

Bramble

Sessile Oak

Wild basil

Hop trefoil

Field scabious

Rib plantain

Upright Brome

Sycamore

Dog rose

White willow

Burnet saxifrage

Perforate St John's wort

English elm

Wild service tree

Lady's bedstraw

Wild parsnip

Common sorrel

Germander speedwell

Fleabane

Mouse ear hawkweed

Red fescue

Red bartsia

Rough hawkbit

Field maple

Selfheal

Common knapweed

Sheeps fescue

Common ragwort

False Brome

Common dog-violet

Blackthorn

Great mullein

Barberry

Yellow flag iris

Commons birds foot trefoil

Smooth hawksbeard

Field bindweed

Virginia creeper

Garden asparagus

Rough chervil

Hybrid black poplar

Rosebay willowherb

Hoary willowherb

White clover

Himilayan balsam

Common hogweed

Hop

Spear thistle

Common nettle

Horseradosh

Elder

Greater plantain

Hedge bindweed

Common reed

Greager burdock

Black bryony

Common Ash

Grey willow

Wood avens

Broad leaved Dock

Hawthorn

Ground elder

Dogs Mercury

Crab apple

Ivy

Alder

Garlic mustard

Herb Robert

Hazel

Enchanters nightshafe

Ground ivy

White poplar

Hedge wound wort

Marsh thistle

Red campion

Lords and ladies

Dandelion

Wild privet

Yorkshire fog

Common toadflax

Salad burnet

Teasel

Common century

Doves foot cranesbill

Fairy flax

Common storks bill

Silver birch

Timothy

Creeping thistle

Field horsetail

Greater knapweed

Mugwort

Creeping cinqefoil

Musk mallow

Dogwood

Common mouse ear

Goldenrod

Wood sedge

Wood millet?

Horse chestnut

Spindle

Beech

Honeysuckle

Hard rush

Common bent

Water mint

Soft rush

Hemp Agrimony

Jointed rush

Tormentil

Meadowsweet

Hairy tare

Marsh St John's wort

Fen bedstraw

Scots pine

Common vetch

Meadow vetchling

Purple Moor grass

Marsh bedstraw

Blunt-flowered rush

Rusty back fern

Common polypod