200 Plants and Counting

Course tutor: James Common

Course length: 8x trips, March-August 2026. Please check the program below.

Course structure: Eight field sessions at different locations.

Course cost: £100 NHSN Members / £125 Non-Members

Back for another season, 200 Plants and Counting is a beginner-friendly field course designed to introduce participants to the flora of North East England. The course explores a variety of representative habitats, including woodland, grassland, wetlands, and urban areas, and the plant species found within them.

The aim is to help attendees confidently identify 200 (or more) plant species, focusing on those most commonly encountered across the region. A few specialised sessions also offer a gentle introduction to more challenging groups such as grasses and ferns.

The course is informal and friendly, with an emphasis on finding, observing, and identifying plants in the field rather than in a classroom setting. A full course programme, including meeting points for specific trips, will be provided ahead of the first session.

In the event of poor weather, every effort will be taken to reschedule missed sessions.

• Urban Spaces, St. Peter's Basin - Wednesday 11 March, 10 am-12 pm
• Woodland Plants, Throckley - Wednesday 15 April, 10 am-12.30 pm
• Trees & Shrubs, Jesmond Dene - Wednesday 13 May, 10 am-12.30 pm
• Grassland Wildflowers, Silverlink - Wednesday 27 May, 10 am-12.30 pm
• Easier Grasses, Heaton - Wednesday 24 June, 10 am-12.30 pm
• Grasslands Continued, Newburn - Wednesday 8 July, 10 am-12.30 pm
• Wetlands, Gosforth Nature Reserve - Wednesday 15 July, 10 am-12.30 pm
• Easier Ferns, Throckley - Wednesday 12 August, 10 am- 12.30pm

Questions (and identification queries) are welcome at any time by emailing [email protected].

Please read the terms and conditions for NHSN education courses before booking.

Recommended Equipment:

· Your favourite ID guide! For most plants, I’d recommend either The Wildflower Key or Collins’ Guide to British Wildflowers and a hand lens if you have one.

About the tutor:

James works as Senior Naturalist at NHSN. Outside of work, he is a passionate wildlife recorder with a focus on botany and invertebrates. As a botanist, he is a joint BSBI Vice-County Recorder for North Northumberland and an iRecord verifier for South Northumberland.

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