Scottish Botanists’ Conference

Scottish Botanists' Conference 2023

The 2023 Scottish Botanists’ Conference was held at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh on Saturday 4th November and welcomed everyone interested in Scottish botany, from beginners to experts and professionals.

Following the landmark publication of Plant Atlas 2020 this year, we were delighted to welcome Professor Matt Williams, Chief Scientific Adviser for Environment, Natural Resources and Agriculture to Scottish Government to open the conference.

A diverse programme included talks on Plant Atlas 2020 and its impact, rare plant translocations for conservation, the recently updated Caledonian Pinewood Inventory, why plant taxonomy keeps changing, a year in the life of a conservation botanist, and project updates from BSBI, BSS and Plantlife Scotland. All sessions are now available to view on the BSBI YouTube channel.

View the programme and on-the-day information here. Abstracts for the conference exhibition can be viewed here, and you can view many of the exhibits that were on display at SBC 2023 here.

More about what's on offer

A great range of hands-on identification and training workshops were also on offer, including workshops on the tricky taxonomic groups of willow-herbs and montane willows, introductions to horsetail and dock identification, a workshop on bryophytes for beginners, a introduction to making herbarium specimens and how to use herbaria online, and how to get the most out of the online Plant Atlas 2020 website. Resources from some of the training workshops are available here.

If you have any queries please contact Matt Harding, BSBI Scotland Officer. Find out more about botany in Scotland here.

Scottish Botanists' Conference 2022

150 people enjoyed this year’s Scottish Botanists’ Conference, at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh on Saturday 5 November. The two main talks by Clifton Bain and Shaila Rao were very popular. There was also a great variety of other short talks, workshops, exhibits and posters, the Scottish AGM, the Photographic Competition and, of course, Summerfield Books!

The event was face-to-face but we recorded the talks and here they are:

Rainforests and Peatlands: Travels around Scotland's most threatened habitats - Clifton Bain, Advisor to the IUCN UK Peatland Programme
What can you do with a completely sequenced flora? - Alex Twyford, University of Edinburgh
Vascular Epiphytes in Easter Ross - Brian Ballinger, BSBI & BSS
Update from Botanical Society of Scotland - Jill Thompson, BSS President
The Scottish Officer year - Jim McIntosh, BSBI Scottish Officer
Plantlife Scotland update and plans - Alistair Whyte, Head of Plantlife Scotland
From The Bird's Mouth / Bho Bheul an Eòin - Derek Roberston
Plant Conservation at Mar Lodge National Nature Reserve - Shaila Rao, Conservation Manager, NTS Mar Lodge
Presentation to mark Jim McIntosh's retirement - by Lynne Farrell, BSBI President

There were also tours of the RBGE Herbarium & Library and six mini-workshops:

We had over 28 posters and exhibits and here are the Exhibition Abstracts.

Earlier Scottish Botanists' Conferences

For details of previous Scottish Botanists' Conferences, head to our SBC archive page.