We hosted around 30 budding botanists who each selected one, or more, rare flora species to become the ‘guardian’ for. Over the spring/summer they will visit and monitor their plant colony at various growth stages, (from leaf/rosette, through flower, and hopefully to seed), recording the number of plants, noting down any management regimes or threats which may affect their plants, and producing a location map.

The project is now in it’s fourth year, which means we are now starting to be able to identify patterns – where colonies are stable, where they are declining – and most importantly observations as to what threats may be affecting their survival. Last year the project achieved the highest number of surveys to date - 36 ‘Guardians’ submitted a total of 126 reports covering around 55 species – which was a fantastic achievement!

This year, the added focus will be on identifying landowners, and using the results recorded to date to open conversations with them about the amazing plants they have growing on their land and where they are located. The hope is that they will in turn engage in helping us protect and care for them.

There were a number of brilliant and positive outcomes from last year where our guardians’ developed relationships with landowners and worked together to locate the plants. We also identified a new colony of Sulphur Clover - thanks to a road closure and recorded Sheep’s Bit thriving in the danger zone of a children’s playground!

We are extremely optimistic that this project will provide invaluable information to help safeguard some of the rarest flora in the county.

A huge thank you to all our existing Flora Guardians – and if you are interested in joining the project please email Sophie.Stocking@wildlifebcn.org.