Juanita Browne: How to identify wildflowers and why you should record your findings

Even absolute beginners can help in this massive nationwide project to record Ireland's rich diversity of spring flowers

Even those who can't readily identify all of Ireland's wild spring flowers (this one's a primrose) can take part, as the National Biodiversity Data Centre website provides photos of them. Picture: Juanita Browne

Do you like flowers? Would you like to help to contribute to knowledge on Ireland’s biodiversity while you’re out and about? The National Biodiversity Data Centre and the Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland (BSBI) welcome your records of spring flowers. This is a joint project between the BSBI and the data centre which began in 2017, to target 20 easily-identifiable spring flowers for recording, along with the provision of a special online recording form.

Not only does it encourage people to record their observations of early-flowering species that can be lacking in data but, like all recording, is valuable as it contributes to furthering plant conservation in Ireland. Many of the spring flowers chosen for the project are very distinctive, making it a good way for those new to recording to get involved and improve their identification skills.