This UK, Ireland and Channel Island- wide project, run by Carmarthenshire Meadows Group, is in its 5th year and our recording season will run as usual from 1st June to 31st August.
The project aims to raise awareness and interest in grasslands, helps with plant ID, highlights interactions between plants and other species and encourages people to get out and record plants.
Any species rich grassland types can be searched including meadows, field edges, woodland rides, church yards, road verges and wild amenity grasslands and gardens.
All you need to do is:
- Select your area of grassland
- Record the location name, grid reference and date
- Amble along and make a note of all the plant species you know. Don’t worry if you can’t identify everything, just include what you know and are confident about
- If you aren’t sure on a species, take photographs from multiple angles of the flower heads, basal and stem leaves, upper and lower leaf surface, leaf base shape and either post on our social media or email to us and we will try and help to identify
- Enter your records at www.bigmeadowsearch.co.uk or email to bigmeadowsearch@gmail.com and once we have finished our BMS analysis, we will send them on to your local environmental record centre (LERC) so that we maximise the value of the data
For information on species ID and interactions please take a look at our Big Meadow Search Facebook Group, X account (@bigmeadowsearch) or Bluesky account (@bigmeadowsearch.bsky.social) or get in touch via email on bigmeadowsearch@gmail.com.
We have produced 2 books to accompany the project. The first concentrates on grassland indicator plants and contains 160+ plants and a range of associated species (invertebrates, fungi, galls) )and the second book has a further 200+ plant species again with a selection of associated species. These are available for £10 each plus p&P, just email bigmeadowsearch@gmail.com for more info. Please see example book pages attached.
Please take a look at our social media and join us this summer, all are welcome.
Laura Moss
Big Meadow Search Project Lead