Derbyshire BRC and its volunteer team  have been involved in two closely related plant-recording projects over the last few years.  These are:

• Derbyshire Flora Project   A county-wide project to record local plants in more detail, and to revise and update “The Flora of Derbyshire”, last published in 1969. Contact us if you would like to be added to our Flora Mailing List.
• Atlas 2000  a UK-wide project to map the plants of Britain by the year 2000. (now completed)

 A Checklist of the Plants of Derbyshire by Moyes, N and Willmot, A. 2002  Recently Reprinted

This carefully researched booklet lists all the plants which have ever been recorded growing wild in Derbyshire, and forms the latest step towards publishing a completely new Flora of Derbyshire. Plants are listed alphabetically by scientific name, with an entry giving county status, conservation status and the latest year each taxon has been formally recorded. Two appendices list previously published records which are now considered erroneous, plus a list of all new county records made since 1979. A free insert lists new county records or updates made since the Checklist was first published.

Copies are available from Derby Museum shop, price £2, or by sending a cheque for £2.50 payable to “The Derbyshire Flora Committee” to:
N Moyes, Derbyshire BRC, Derby Museum & Art Gallery, The Strand, Derby, DE1 1BS. 

The following products are also available from this site:

• Plant Lists for Derbyshire
• Plant List for Derby City area (SK33)
• Derbyshire Flora 2000 - Project Overview 
• Summary of Plant Recording Progress
• Derbyshire Flora 2000 Newsletter (June 2001 and back issues)
• Species counts per Monad (1km²) or per Tetrad (4km²) (Lists the numbers of plant taxa so far recorded in each map square in Derbyshire. Updated Jan 2004).
• Local Plants-Local Customs 

Plant Lists for Derby City
Over 950 plant taxa have been recorded around Derby over the last 100 years. Of these, some 218 have not been seen here since the 1970s. Three versions are available:   (All files are 92kB in size, and relate only to SK33).

• Derby Plant List #1 - sorted alphabetically by common name.
• Derby Plant List #2 - sorted by scientific name.
• Derby Plant List #3 - sorted by the latest year species seen.

Plant Lists for Derbyshire (Provisional)
Nearly 2000 plant taxa have been recorded in Derbyshire. These lists show the total number of records held for each species, plus the number of 1-kilometre grid squares for which records have been made since 1987.  Lists updated Nov 2000. File size: 240kb

• County Checklist for Derbyshire   - sorted by scientific name.
• County Checklist #2       - sorted by number of records held.

For a fully up-to-date list, purchase a copy of our Checklist of the Plants of Derbyshire 2002 (see above)

Jacob’s Ladder (Polemonium caeruleum) This Derbyshire speciality is found in the limestone parts of Derbyshire and the Peak District. Its bright blue flowers can readily be seen each early summer by anyone following the public paths through Lathkilldale NNR. It was recently voted as our “County Plant” in a nationwide poll run by Plantlife
Illustration courtesy of Derbyshire Wildlife Trust.

Map showing total number of plant taxa per tetrad.
Click for an exact count of taxa per tetrad or monad.

Altitude is indicated by colour:
Yellow         Under 50m
Green          50-150m
Blue            150m-300m
Light purple  300m-500m
Dark purple  Over 500m

The map of Derbyshire opposite shows how many different plant species have been recorded and computerised for each Derbyshire tetrad so far.

The larger the dot, the greater the number of species recorded in that area.

A tetrad is a group of four single kilometre map squares. Note that the large grid squares on this map are actually 10km across. Thus Derbyshire is about 95km from North to South.

Almost a third of a million records have been analysed to produce this map. You can use it to identify areas with poorest botanical diversity (or recording coverage). No dot at all indicates less than 50 species have been recorded in that tetrad, whilst the smallest dot indicates between 50 to 99 species, and so on. These are still the priority areas to record in. But note that the very north of the county is high moorland, dominated by Crowberry, Bilberry, and Heather. Whilst these areas are species-poor, they are very important ecologically and are home to many species of wildlife found nowhere else in the county, such as the mountain hare.

Find out more about our plant recording projects, go to the Newsletter page.

Bee Orchids “discovered” in Derby - Nick Moyes

Whilst out one evening plant hunting in 1999, I came across an area of long grassland I had not visited before. The site did not look very special, but had been disturbed a few years previously by a colony of travellers. It was now relatively quiet, despite being only a few hundred yards from one of Derby’s main roads. Fourteen separate flowering spikes were counted, and appeared to be the first time these plants had been recorded in the City. The Derby Trader covered the story on its front pages which resulted in two more records being reported by the public. One told of a site near Allenton, Derby. This site looked promising, but no plants could be seen there when we visited, but bee orchids were finally confirmed here in summer 2000. The other was of a colony of plants seen thirty years ago. And where where they seen? Exactly where our first colony was found in 1999, showing that seed of these plants probably remains dormant for many years before germinating.

Bee Orchid photos courtesy of Eric Gregory, Derby Trader

County Plant Collections

Derby Museum & Art Gallery holds over 6,500 pressed plant specimens from the county of Derbyshire. Many of these are specimens collected in the mid-19th century, and relate to published records in old county floras. These specimens are known as “voucher specimens” and are of great local importance. The Museum and Records Centre still encourages the careful collection of plant specimens today where those specimens may prove valuable in confirming the identities of the plant. We do, however, discourage the inconsiderate collecting of plants without a purpose or where it would put the survival of a species at risk. Specimens and biological data held together in this way form an important scientific and educational resource far greater than when either of them is held separately. Please contact the museum if you wish to access our collections or databanks.