2024 Scottish Botanists' Conference
Sat 2 Nov 2024 9:15 AM - 6:00 PM GMT
Science Buildings, Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, Inverleith Row, EH3 5LR
Description
Everyone, whether BSBI or BSS members or not, or RBGE staff and students, will be very welcome at the Scottish Botanists' Conference.
The conference will be held on Saturday 2nd November at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (RBGE). There will be a wide range of talks, including on conservation initiatives for threatened species such as Small Cow-wheat and One-flowered Wintergreen, a year in the life of a mountain botanist, a look at invasive species in Scotland including Rhododendron and Giant Hogweed, and annual updates from the BSBI and Botanical Society of Scotland.
As usual the conference will include the BSBI’s Scottish Annual General Meeting, during which elections for membership of the Committee for Scotland will be held. If any of our Scottish members would be interested in joining the Committee, we would love to hear from you. Please contact the Secretary Polly Spencer-Vellacott or Chair David Elston to discuss what's involved.
Programme
The full programme is available here. Talks include:
- Teaming up science and horticulture to restore the Small Cow-wheat (Melampyrum sylvaticum) in Scotland - Dr Aline Finger & Jenny Baker, RBGE
- An Inch of Moss: Learning from the Cairngorms Rare Plants Project about Pinewood Specialists and their Niches - Sam Jones, Senior Ecological Advisor, Plantlife Scotland
- The curious tale of Rhododendron ponticum - Dr Richard Milne, BSS / University of Edinburgh
- Woolly warriors - tackling giant hogweed using sheep grazing - Callum Sinclair, Scottish Invasive Species Initiative
- Clinging on: A year in the life of a mountain botanist - Lewis Donaghy, NTS Ranger
- Genomic barcodes for identifying complex species - Dr Connie Simon-Nutbrown, RBGE
- Updates from the BSBI and the Botanical Society of Scotland
- Student research flash talks on subjects including One-flowered Wintergreen and its mycorrhizal fungi relationships, mapping Rhododendron spread in the Loch Lomond & the Trossachs National Park, and the ecological legacy of Shetland botanical writing for rare plants in the face of climate change!
Charges
A general admission £30 fee will be charged to cover organisation costs, workshops, speakers' expenses and morning and afternoon teas and coffees. Sadly, the RBGE staff canteen will not open for lunch. But you are welcome to bring a packed lunch and there are a few small cafes within a 15 minute walk.
Conference Dinner
Sadly the Scottish Botanists’ Conference Dinner is now full. It will be held at the Loon Fung Cantonese Restaurant, 5 minutes walk from the venue.
Mini-workshops
Booking for the mini-workshop programme is now closed. If you have a query regarding them please email Matt Harding.
- Starting with Euphrasia Identification with Chris Metherell
- FULL Ferns for Beginners with Heather McHaffie
- How to Take Photos for Bramble ID with Angus Hannah
- FULL Introduction to Sphagnum with Oliver Moore
- FULL Using Your Smartphone for Botanical Imaging with Rich Wilson
- FULL Using the BSBI Recording App with James Drever and Tom Humphrey
- Introduction to the BSBI’s Plant Distribution Database with Matt Harding
- Making the most of herbaria with RBGE Herbarium staff, including an introduction to digital herbaria resources
Remember the mini-workshops, like all the talks, are entirely optional and you may prefer to have an extended lunch break catching up with friends, or view the exhibition and posters, or visit Summerfield Books or get out into the gardens for a breath of fresh air.
Exhibitors
We rely on exhibitors to generate botanical interest and would encourage all participating botanists to put their interesting botanical findings on display. Please give the title of your exhibit or poster and how much space you require when booking. Due to limited space large requests may have to be reduced. Please also email an abstract of your exhibit or poster of no more than 50 words to Liz Lavery by the 25th October.
Photographic Exhibition & Competition
All amateur photographers are welcome to enter the BSBI Photographic Competition, the deadline for which is Friday 25 October 2024. Full details of the competition are on the competition webpage. Winners will be selected by a popular vote by all those attending the Scottish Botanists' Conference.
The categories in 2024 are:
- Intrepid: finding plants in wild places
- Inquisitive: up close with diagnostic features
- Inclusive: sharing plants with others
Travel
With global warming and the high cost of fuel we'd really like to encourage participants to travel by public transport or at least car share.
Personal Information
The information being requested on this form will only be held and used by the BSBI to administer this conference and to let you know about next year's event. On booking we ask you for your name, contact details, organisation, role and home town. Optional information requested will only be held and used by the BSBI to administer this conference. Please see the BSBI Privacy Policy for further details of how your data will be handled and stored. You can request to see the data we hold, request its removal or update your contact preferences at any time by contacting us. To do so, email enquiries@bsbi.org.
Photos
We would like to take occasional photographs showing participants listening to the talks and viewing the exhibits, for publicity purposes. Please let the photographer know if you do not wish to be included in these photographs.
Refunds
Full refunds will be offered to anyone who needs to cancel up to 1 week before the event. If you have to cancel at shorter notice, we may not be able to refund your fee.
Social media
Use #ScotBotanistsConf to follow the event on Twitter.
Photo Credit
Many thanks to Bert Barnett, with an image of Yellow Mountain Saxifrage (Saxifraga aizoides) in Fisherfield, that was the winner of one of our BSBI Photo Competition categories in 2023.
Location
Science Buildings, Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, Inverleith Row, EH3 5LR