All about brambles

Today was all about the brambles. I was helping to run a bramble training and collection day for the LoveLincsPlants project and the South Linolnshire Flora Group. Alex Prendergast , the BSBI Referee for Rubus in eastern England, came over to train us and we spent the morning in Bourne Woods gathering specimens and being given some clues about the features used for identification. It was hot, sticky and prickly - and I'm not sure how many of us were that much wiser about bramble identification by lunchtime!

In the afternoon we went to a local village hall to prepare the herbarium specimens. We were glad not to still be out in the field as there were several significant thunderstorms. Pressing, photographing and gathering DNA from the specimens proved to be even harder work, particularly in the hot and humid conditions, and we only just managed to get them all done, despite having two teams of people working. An exhausting day all round, but worthwhile as this seems to be the first collection of DNA from brambles ever undertaken.  

(posted 10 November 2019)