Thousands of citizen scientists took part in the Botanical Society of Britain & Ireland’s fourteenth New Year Plant Hunt2 to find wild or naturalised plants flowering in midwinter. Their observations are providing us with robust evidence of how our wild plants are responding to a rapidly changing climate, and the implications this may have for all our wildlife.

Here’s a summary of what the plant hunters found:

• 647 different plant species in bloom, the third highest total in the history of the Hunt.
• 25,000 individual plant records – a record number.
• The three most frequently recorded species were Daisy, Dandelion and Groundsel.
• Almost half (48%) of the species in bloom were flowering later than expected vs around a quarter flowering earlier than expected.
• Just over half (52%) of the species in bloom were native to Britain and Ireland.