Planning a New Year’s Day walk? Why not join the New Year Plant Hunt and look for plants that are in bloom in the middle of winter? This fun activity organised by the Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland (BSBI) every year between 1-4 January makes botanical recording accessible to everyone, no matter their age or skill level.

Taking part is simple: just go on a walk and record all the wild flowering plants you can find. You will need a photo, a location and an ID for each plant you find – once you’ve completed your activity, submit your records to the BSBI. You can download spotter sheets from their website, including a top 10 list of flowering plants you can find this time of the year in England – record wild or naturalised plants, but not planted or garden species. You can upload your finds once you get home from your computer, or upload them during your walk using the BSBI’s Recording App which automatically includes the location for your finds too.

On a short post-Christmas stroll on the Common, we found the following plants in bloom (most of them are on the BSBI’s Top 10 list): Daisy (Bellis perennis), Yarrow (Achillea millefolium) and White Dead-nettle (Lamium album; all three have white flowers), Gorse (Ulex sp., yellow flowers), Red Dead-nettle (Lamium purpureum, pink flowers), Green Alkanet (Pentaglottis sempervirens, blue flowers).

Are you more interested in fungi than flowers? Here is our recent post about the species of fungi you can see on the Common in the winter.

And here are the flowers we found:

Daisy (Bellis perennis)

Yarrow (Achillea millefolium)

White Dead-nettle (Lamium album)

Gorse (Ulex sp.)

Red Dead-nettle (Lamium purpureum)

Green Alkanet (Pentaglottis sempervirens)