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The Sussex Botanical Recording Society is a group of botanists who study and record the distribution of wild plants in the counties of East and West Sussex.

Field Meetings

Each year we hold between 10 and 12 field meetings and two indoor meetings. The field meetings are held in all parts of East and West Sussex. Most are to perform botanical surveys but some concentrate on particular plant groups and aim to improve members’ knowledge. All observations from field meetings are recorded in our database, and members are strongly encouraged to record their own observations other than at field meetings. Read our guidance on how to submit your observations.

Membership

We welcome new members who have an interest in taking an active part in recording the distribution of wild plants in Sussex. See the Join SBRS page for details of how to become a member.

Members receive the society Newsletter twice a year, though back issues are available on this site, and many articles extracted from the Newsletters are also available for all readers. If you are relatively new to the local flora, our Plant Profiles of many common species may also be valuable.

Projects and Publications

Cover of The Flora of Sussex

Our latest project is the updating of the Sussex Rare Plant Register, but we have a number of other active projects. Our members are also involved in a range of local and national projects.

As a result of work by our members we have produced a number of publications including the journal, Sussex Botany, which contained articles on topics of botanical interest in Sussex.

Since early 2005 we were involved in a major project to record the vascular plants present in all tetrads in Sussex (of which there are just over 1000) to produce a new Sussex Flora. Recording for it is complete and the Flora was published in February 2018.

The society has also published The Stoneworts of Sussex (2020), and the BSBI have also published Hawkweeds of south-east England by Mike Shaw, who was county recorder for West Sussex until 2018.

We have contacts with organisations such as the Sussex Wildlife Trust and East and West Sussex County Councils. We also contribute records to the Sussex Biodiversity Record Centre at Woods Mill. We maintain close links with the Botanical Society of the Britain and Ireland via the county recorders for East Sussex and West Sussex who are members of our committee.

Surveys

The society can also undertake bespoke surveys, such as surveys of areas of conservation interest for farmers and landowners. More information is available on the contacts page.