South Yorkshire Plant Atlas

Geoffrey Wilmore and his team have now finished their 7 or more years of fieldwork for the atlas of flowering plants in South Yorkshire. They are now working on getting the results of their labours into print.

Geoffrey's programme of walks to and around some of the best places to find wild flowers in the county was also a great success.

YNU Botanical Section

This section consists of members who are interested in flowering plants and ferns. Special meetings are held in the summer months, one in each vice-county. Members carry out surveys, have plant identification sessions and study the distribution of species within the county. Attending these meetings gives people the opportunity to be shown unusual species and beginners are taught how to identify them. The meetings start at 10.30am and finish at 4pm, and don't involve long walks!

Botanical contacts and Recorders

Yorkshire's botanical heritage

Yorkshire is the largest county in Britain. It is also on the southern boundary of the upland Atlantic flora which require cool wet conditions and on the northern edge of the more drought tolerant plants which need a warmer European climate as found in southern Britain. Within its boundaries are three national parks, containing some of the finest unspoilt upland areas in the country where many unusual plants and habitats are found. In the lowlands of the east large areas of fine agricultural land are interspersed with floodplains with raised bogs and areas of lowland heath. To the west is a belt of magnesian limestone running from County Durham to Nottingham and adjacent to it are the more acidic coal measures. Salt-tolerant plants grow in the coastal fringe and urban areas and “brownfield” sites increase the range of habitats.