Everyone is welcome to take part in the New Year Plant Hunt – you don’t have to be a BSBI member or an experienced botanist – and we’ll help you if you get stuck!
Please send your finds using the New Year Plant Hunt app.
It’s easy to use and will allow us to process your finds quickly so that they appear immediately on the results page.
You can use the app on your phone while you are out recording, or on your computer once you get home. It’s free, quick and easy to use. There’s no registration required.
The recording app works on phones (iPhone and Android), tablets and computers. You can use it just like you would use a website, or – if you’re using your phone – you can add it to your home screen if you’d like to.
The deadline for getting your records to us is midnight on Sunday 7th January 2024.
1. Get ready
First plan your route
If you haven’t already planned your route, take a look at the guidance we’ve provided.
2. Join the Hunt
How to record
EITHER:
- open the recording app on your phone
- OR have a notebook and pencil ready to make notes while you are out hunting and then record your finds using the app on your computer when you get back home.
We’d always recommend that you take a pencil and notebook with you, if only as a backup.
If you are getting started with botany, we recommend that you try using our recording app to send us details of what you saw. Using the app on your phone means that you can record your New Year Plant Hunt finds as you walk. You’ll be able to add photos and automatically include accurate grid-references using your phone’s GPS. We can help you with identification if you get stuck – just upload a picture of the mystery plant or you can email the Support Team.
Records and images submitted via the recording app will appear on the results page.
Please don’t use other recording software: we are not able to include records sent to iRecord or added to MapMate.
What to record
Record wild plants that are growing naturally in their environment and are currently flowering. Please don’t record plants that are intentionally planted or found in gardens.
There is more info about this on our wild, native or alien page. Please check that plants are actually flowering – that catkins on trees are open, that grasses have open florets, that stigmas or anthers on show etc. Please don’t include ferns, mosses, fungi or lichens – none of these has flowers!
If you’re not sure what your plant is and you are using our recording app, you can upload a photo of an unidentified plant and our experts will try to identify it for you. Top tip: take photographs from the side (it’s harder to identify plants from above) and take a pic of the leaves too.
Using Social Media to share your finds
The recording app is the only way to add your finds to the final totals, but we’d love you to also tweet your finds to us at @BSBIbotany using the hashtag #NewYearPlantHunt – these tweets will be streamed to the New Year Plant Hunt website.
You can also share your finds on the BSBI Facebook pages for Britain and Ireland, on the BSBI Instagram account, on our Bluesky, Threads and TikTok accounts – but remember that finds posted on social media can only be included in the final total if you also send them to us via the app. You can email the New Year Plant Hunt Team if you have any questions about this year’s Hunt and how to record.
If you run into any problems using the recording app on your phone or your computer please check our Troubleshooting / FAQ page.
3. Follow the results
Watch the results – your finds, and plants spotted by other hunters across Britain and Ireland – as they flood in on our interactive map.
Read daily updates on our News & Views blog.
Follow the New Year Plant Hunt on our social media platforms – on Twitter, on Instagram and join our NYPH Facebook group.
Frequently Asked Questions
Still stuck? Email the NYPH team at nyplanthunt@bsbi.org or phone us on 07725 862957. We’ll be here throughout the hunt, ready to help you.
Personal details collected by the New Year Plant Hunt are covered by BSBI’s Privacy Policy and our Data Handling Policy.
Please contact us if you wish to find out more about how we handle your data or to fully remove your details from our database.