Some notes by the Hatted Botanist. If you want to learn more about identifying flowers may I suggest:
- Scottish Wild Flowers by Michael Scott is good book to start with. It has great illustrations and emphases the key identification features. It has up to date distribution. The book is usually in my pocket when I am walking. There is a smaller edition as well with less detail.
- Francis Rose’s Wild Flower Key and David Streeter’s Collins Flower Guide are the next level up. They give sufficient details to identify all but the really tricky plants. I use Rose a lot because I am more familiar with it and it is smaller but the Collins guide includes more plants and especially sedges and reeds. Michael Scott's pictures are lifted from the Collins Guide.
- There are some great books about flowers (rather than how to identify) by far and away my favourite is Richard Mabey’s Flora Britannica. It is a ‘coffee table book’ that gives context, background and lore of many common plants and is an engaging read.
- Lastly these three about Glasgow flowers are well worth a look:
- The Changing Flora of Glasgow by Dickson, Macpherson, Watson and Tait is an invaluable guide to what grows where, why and since when in Glasgow.
- Jim Dickson has also written a gem of a book Wild Plants of Glasgow which is beautifully illustrated and provides much interesting background.
- The Flora of Renfrewshire by Keith Watson was published in 2013 and is opening my eyes to what is around. Botanically Renfrewshire includes all of Linn Park west of the River Cart.
If you want to buy any of these books and make a botanist happy and use this link to Amazon as the Bumblebee Conservation Trust will get 8% of what you spend. There are other booksellers of course ....
I am a member of the Glasgow Natural History Society that covers botany and other (lesser) areas of the Natural World and their web site is well worth a look.
Plantlife is a national organisation whose web site I also find a useful resource.
If you have any pictures of plants from Linn Park that you would like me to try and identify please email me and I'll have a try. I use the Open University site iSpot to confirm identities and would recommend this resource for all wildlife identity questions.