Blooming Amazing – The New Year Plant Hunt 2026

Now in its tenth year, the Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland’s (BSBI) citizen science project called the New Year Plant Hunt (NYPH), although New Year Flower Hunt might be a better name, has just finished.  

Over four days at the New Year, volunteers take a walk around their neighbourhood and record any plants outside of gardens that are actually in flower.  Sidmouth has plenty of urban spaces with wild plants, something that is controversial sometimes, but it makes it a haven for biodiversity.

Nature usually shuts down for winter but volunteers from the Sid Valley Biodiversity Group have recorded an amazing 51 different species of plants actually flowering around the town from the 1^st to the 4^th January this year despite the current frosty cold snap.  A full list is at the end of this report.  A 52^nd species, Herb Robert, was found away from the official counts.

The BSBI website summary for last year’s national project reports that, around 3,000 citizen scientists, hunting solo, with family and friends, or as part of a series of organised group hunts across Britain and Ireland, submitted almost 25,000 individual plant records. 

Their lists varied from 97 species recorded in Swanage to single observations of Gorse blooming in frosty Scottish glens. Daisy was the most frequently recorded plant, with 1,499 observations from Guernsey to Westray in the Orkney Islands. As in previous years, Dandelion and Groundsel completed the ‘Top Three’ – each was recorded more than one thousand times.

In total, 647 different species were recorded in flower, the third highest total in the event’s history. 340 of the 647 species (52%) were flowering late compared to around a quarter flowering early and a quarter as expected, being all-year-rounders or winter specialists. 

It is known that coastal locations, which are less subject to late frosts, tend to yield longer lists, as did southern vs northern locations. Therefore it is not surprising that with the average species count across the whole country last year at about 12 species per hunt, over the four local walks this year the average was 24.

A few of the local plants are garden escapes such as Mexican Fleabane, Pot Marigold and Winter Heliotrope and we cannot be sure if they might be expected to flower during our winters, there is a hint in the name Winter Heliotrope perhaps, but the majority of records are genuine native wildflowers and nearly all of them should have died down long before Christmas or not put their heads up before Easter.  

Plants such as Dandelions and Common Daisies often hold up a few flowers through the winter which is a huge benefit to over wintering queen bumblebees who might wake up on mild days and need food.

There are late autumn flowers such as Yarrow and Hawkbits but they would have finished flowering by the end of October a hundred years ago.  The Woodland Trust’s phenology (science of seasons) project Nature’s Calendar doesn’t expect spring flowers such as the yellow stars of Lesser Celandine to appear before the middle of January.  In his diary for 1773, the famous naturalist Gilbert White records the first Primroses in his garden on 5^th February.  We can always find them flowering somewhere in the valley in January and recorded them already flowering on December 29^th in 2024

It was very cold but sunny over the four days this year, but a few hours of sunshine is not the main factor, New Year 2024 was dull and cloudy but we still had over 40 species recorded.  The trend of more and more plants flowering in winter has a deeper cause, they are a clear indicator of our climate warming.  

Temperatures on individual days may rise and fall but our climate, the collection of averages across longer spans of time, is warming, we don’t have room here to discuss the complex causes.  Analyses of the NYPH survey data demonstrate a significant relationship between warmer temperatures in late autumn and increased plant flowering at New Year. 

Scientists at the Met Office have undertaken a careful study of thousands of records linking the number of flowers and the actual weather history of their locations.  Reported in the Guardian recently, the analysis shows that the temperature across November and December is key.  

For every 1°C rise in mean temperature at a given location over those months, you can expect an average of 2.5 additional plant species in bloom during the NYPH.  Kevin Walker, a scientist at BSBI, said, “This new analysis shows a very clear link between rising temperatures and impacts on our plant species.  This is yet further evidence that climate change is affecting our wildlife indiscriminately.”

The four local walks from 1^st -4^th January were around the beach, Bickwell Valley, along Byes Lane from Livonia Road to Sidford, and the area around the football club at Manstone.  Each walk had very different results.  The species counts were 21, 30, 18 & 24 respectively with only 8 of the 51 recorded species found on all four and 28 species found in a single location.  

In the Sidmouth counts there were obvious plants such as Dandelion, Common Groundsel and Common Daisy, the ‘big three’ of the national data.  The four walks were urban and experienced nature watchers will not be surprised that Mexican Fleabane registered on all four walk as did the very common ‘weed’ Petty Spurge.  A recent ‘blow in’, literally in this case unlike with the human population, is a small grass called Water Bent which arrived from Europe in the 1960s but is rated as one of the fastest spreading introduced plants and is the commonest roadside weed in some areas.  You can find it sprouting from roadside cracks and at the base of walls all over town.

At the other extreme, there was a single Rock Samphire plant in flower in a very sheltered corner of the cliff at the foot of Jacob’s Ladder.  According to the textbooks, this specialist halophyte, salt tolerant plant, that grows on the cliffs and the edge of the beach should flower in July and August.

One delightful find was in the Manstone area.  The Manstone Youth Centre was built in the early 1970s but demolished last year.  Discussions are still ongoing about what to do with the resultant brown field site but, in the meantime, it has been colonised by a surprising variety of wildflowers.  

Again, some such as the Guernsey Fleabane and Dandelions might be from seeds that have blown in, but others such as the Wild Radish are probably from seeds that have been in the ground under the building for fifty years just waiting for their chance to germinate.  The SVBG will be monitoring the site across the year to see just how many more species will pop up.

We will share the national report from the BSBI when it is published.

Ed Dolphin