Recording the wild flora of Britain is almost entirely done by volunteers. It is possible to contribute in many ways, for instance by surveying specific sites, recording in your neighborhood, or by reporting unusual findings to your local vice-county recorders. You don’t need to be an expert, as long as you enjoy it and have some interest in learning.
It is easy to share records with county recorders. You can e-mail them directly, keep a spreadsheet, or you can submit them online using iRecord for speedy verification by local botanists. Simply sign-up and share a casual (single) record or a list of several.
Due to issues with data quality, records submitted via iNaturalist are not regularly accepted at this time.
Site surveys, ad hoc sightings, or even a list of weeds in your garden; all records are welcome and help improve our knowledge of wild plants across Northumberland.
What is a record?
There are a few simple guidelines for submitting records, which can be summarised as “What, When Who, and Where“.
- What Try to identify the plant as accurately as possible. If you are in doubt and if it is plentiful, make a pressed specimen so that it can be identified by an expert.
- When Record the date it was found.
- Who Note who found the plant and who identified it.
- Where Specify the location as accurately as possible, including both a grid reference and the name of the location.
Email a sighting
Whether you’re sharing a one-off sighting or an entire spreadsheet of records, county recorders would love to hear from you. Visit the page below to find the correct contact for your area.
Share a sighting on iRecord
iRecord is a fantastic tool for quickly and easily sharing botanical records. Not only are sightings added to the BSBI database but county recorders are able to verify sightings and offer feedback.
Recording cards
We have created custom recording cards to help your recording in Northumberland. You are not obliged to use these, particularly if you already submit via iRecord or spreadsheet.
You can print out the cards on both sides of a sheet of A4 paper; the coversheet on one side, and the tick-sheet on the other. The species included are optimised for each vice-county, but it doesn’t matter if you use one county’s sheet in another county.
If using a recording sheet, please cross out the species name, not the number – this is the crucial bit. Once completed, please send your sheet to the relevant vice-county recorder.
North Northumberland (VC68)
Please see here for a copy of the VC68 Recorders Handbook.
- Recording card (scientific names)
- Recording card reverse (scientific names)
- Record card (English names)
- Recording card reverse (English names)
South Northumberland (VC67)
Botany in Northumberland 