Flora project

The project account below was published in 2022. Project updates are published from time to time in our newsletter. For the weekly botany walks programme from April to September 2025, click here. A new programme will be posted in April 2026.

Cam Valley Wildlife Group Flora Project

Project Leader: Helena Crouch

Project Aims:

  • To identify and record the flora of the Cam Valley Wildlife Group area

  • To increase members’ interest in, and enjoyment and knowledge of, the plant species and communities of our local area

Project Activities:

  • Regular botanical walks and excursions, making detailed plant records

  • Continual botanical education and development of interest in our flora

  • Talks on the local flora

  • Submission of records to the Botanical Society of Britain & Ireland (BSBI) and to the Local Record Centres (BRERC and SERC)

  • Networking with other relevant organisations: Botanical Society of Britain & Ireland, Somerset Rare Plants Group, Bath Natural History Society, Bristol Naturalists’ Society, and other local botanists

  • Producing a publication (one day) on the flora of the Cam and Wellow Valleys

Project Achievements:

  • From 1997 to 1999 CVWG botanists gathered data for inclusion in the New Atlas of the British & Irish Flora (published in 2002)

  • The CVWG Flora Recording Project developed from this; 2022 was the twenty-sixth year of recording

  • Over 65,000 plant records have now been made on regular CVWG botany walks

  • More than 1000 plant species have been recorded during the weekly botany walks in the Cam & Wellow Valleys

  • Over 250 members and guests have participated in walks over the last 25 years

  • All records are sent to the Botanical Society of Britain & Ireland, contributing to their constantly updated online maps of species distributions (see bsbidb.org.uk)

  • Data gathered from 2000 to 2019 contributed to the third Atlas of the British & Irish Flora 

  • Records are also sent to the Local Record Centres, where they help inform surveys required for planning applications, etc.

  • Records for the rarer species are being included in the Rare Plant Register for Somerset (see www.somersetrareplantsgroup.org.uk)

How to get involved:

CVWG botany walks are held weekly from April to September, each week at a different location within the CVWG recording area, or further afield. For more information please contact Helena via helenacrouch@sky.com

Drawing: Oxeye Daisy by  Ann Mead – not to be reproduced without permission

Header photo: Round-leaved Fluellen (Kickxsia spuria)