Plantwatch: Britain’s volunteer naturalists provide vital knowledge

The practice of recording firsthand observations about nature goes back centuries and provides an invaluable resource

Britain has a long tradition of volunteer naturalists dating back 250 years to the Rev Gilbert White in Selborne, Hampshire, best known for his classic book The Natural History of Selborne (1789).

In recent times, Rosemary Parslow has detailed the plants of the Isles of Scilly, many found nowhere else in Britain thanks to the sub-tropical climate of the islands.