Dear Flora Recorder

Many thanks to all those who sent in records last year, we are making very good progress towards the target of achieving 200 species for every tetrad. We have over 268,000 post-1980 plant records on the database with 231,000 being unique at tetrad level (i.e. contributing a dot to a map). 637 tetrads (60%) have over 200 species and the average number for a tetrad, even including all the little edge bits, is 215 species. Particular thanks to those who were able to contribute their records electronically on spreadsheets, this has sped up data processing and reduced the error rate considerably. Bob Ellis has been able to send me a couple of thousand new records from the Local Change survey which brought the number of records added for 2004 to about 20,000.

There are records for 2078 different taxa although only 153 species have records from more than 500 tetrads and 917 species have records from less than 10 tetrads. The top scorers, all with over 1000 tetrads, are: Urtica dioica, Rubus fruticosus agg., Galium aparine, Plantago lanceolata, Cirsium arvense, Glechoma hederacea, Crataegus monogyna, Dactylis glomerata, Anthriscus sylvestris, Sambucus nigra and Achillea millefolium.

We have completed processing the 2004 data and have produced a new coverage map with tetrad totals as well as maps showing those squares with less than 100 species and less than 200 species (see enclosed sheets). As with previous years the first target should be the squares below 100 species, but don't worry too much about the squares on the county border and the coast which have only very small areas within Suffolk and so will naturally have lower totals. There are now only 82 squares left with totals below 100 species and 38 of these are tiny fragments on the borders or the coast.

I am planning a meeting to discuss plans for the new Flora and to review progress for Saturday March 5th 10.30 a.m. to 1.00 p.m. If there are any aspects you think we should be looking at please let me know and we can put them on the agenda. I shall also be giving a presentation on Flora recording to the SNS Members meeting in Bury St Edmunds on the evening before. Anyone who can’t make the Saturday meeting is welcome to attend at the Cathedral Lecture Room at 7.00 p.m. on Friday March 4th (you don’t have to be a member of SNS). There will be presentations from several of the key wildlife recorders and others with a keen interest in natural history.

If you would like species lists or ‘desiderata’ for any particular squares do give me a call or drop me a line.

Best wishes

Martin Sanford

© 2005   Suffolk Naturalists' Society

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