*** BOOKINGS WILL CLOSE AT 0800 ON THE DAY OF THE CONFERENCE***

Everyone with an interest in Scottish botany is very welcome to the Scottish Botanists’ Conference 2021. We will have an inspiring programme of talks, workshops and exhibits on Saturday 6th November - all online and recorded so you can view them later (or again). All you need is a broadband connection and you’re there – no travelling!  

Programme

We are delighted to announce that the programme includes talks on the plants of two of the most important and iconic National Nature Reserves in Scotland! On Beinn Eighe - the UK’s first National Nature Reserve currently celebrating its 70^th anniversary and on 40 years of rare plant monitoring on Ben Lawers National Nature Reserve. Here is the full programme:

10.00 Welcome to the Scottish Botanists' Conference - Julia Hanmer, Chief Executive, BSBI

10.10 Welcome from Botanical Society of Scotland - Jill Thompson, President, BSS

10.15 Beinn Eighe NNR - the UK’s first National Nature Reserve celebrating 70 years - Ian Sargent, Nature Reserves Manager, NatureScot

10.50 Phytophthora in UK juniper populations - Flora Donald, UKCEH

11.10 Break

11.20 For a Plant-rich World: Plantlife Scotland update and plans – Alistair Whyte, Head of Plantlife Scotland

11.40 The BSBI Scottish Year - Jim McIntosh, BSBI Scottish Officer

12.00 Project Seagrass - Richard Lilley, Director of Project Seagrass

12.20 Break

12.30 BSBI Scottish AGM - Lindsay Mackinlay, Chair BSBI Committee for Scotland

13.00 Break for Lunch

13.30 40 years of rare plant monitoring on Ben Lawers NNR - Sarah Watts, University of Stirling

14.10 Expedition to West Affric in search of rare alpines - Jeff Waddell, Senior Natural Heritage Advisor NTS

14.30 The Urban Flora Project - John Grace, BSS

14.50 Results of the BSBI Photographic Competition - Natalie Harmsworth

14.55 Break / Close for those not attending workshops

Workshops

15.05 Polypody Ferns in the British Isles; origins, ecology, distribution and identification – Rob Cooke, BSBI Referee & British Pteridological Society

16.05 Larches in the British Isles - history, ecology & identification – Matt Parratt, Forest Research

17.00 Thank you & Close

Charges

Registration is essential but there is no fee. However we would be delighted if you would make an donation to help with our organisation and administrative costs. The donation is entirely optional - you can edit the suggested amount and replace it with anything from £0 to £100 or more!

Exhibitors

We plan to mount a virtual exhibition but, as always, we rely on participants to generate botanical interest by volunteering to display their interesting botanical findings and posters. It is simpler to do than you might think, and we can help, so do please consider exhibiting. You can enter your exhibit or poster title when booking and please email me, Jim McIntosh, separately with your exhibits and posters and short summaries of them in no more than 100 words.  Here is a link to the 2020 Scottish Botanists Conference exhibition by way of example.

Workshops

We are planning just two workshops this year (fewer than in previous years due to time and format). Both on very interesting but quite tricky species groups. For more training webinars, do take a look at our fantastic back-catalogue available on BSBI Plant ID: training webinars, where three of last years' SBC workshops are amongst the top 5 most viewed!

Photographic Competition

The 2021 Photographic Competition has now closed but thank you to everyone who entered - and good luck! Winners of the Photographic Competition will be selected by a poll of those participating in the Conference on the day. For full details of the BSBI Photographic Competition.... but to recap briefly; the 2021 competition has two categories: simply 1) Native and 2) Alien. Photographs should be taken in Britain or Ireland, but don't have to be taken during 2021. Summerfield Books will kindly supply the book token prizes.

Summerfield Books

Summerfield Books' pop-up bookshop is a regular feature at the Scottish Botanists' Conference. This year we will have a short video from them telling us about their most exciting recently-published books.

Personal details

When you register you will be asked for your email, name and hometown. Your details will not be shared with third parties (other than Ticket Tailor, the operators of this booking page) and your email only be used to keep you posted about this event, seek feedback about it and to let you know about next year's Scottish Botanists' Conference.

This information is being requested to administer the event and BSBI will only hold the information to fulfil this purpose. Please see our 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.

Scottish Botanists' Conference

The Scottish Botanists' Conference is a collaboration of the Botanical Society of Britain & Ireland, the Botanical Society of Scotland and the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh.

Image Credit

Thank you very much to Sarah Watts who provided the excellent photograph of tall herbs, including Melancholy Thistle (Cirsium heterophyllum), on Creag an Lochain, near Ben Lawers which we are using to promote the event.