What is a Rare Plant Register?
At its simplest, a Rare Plant Register is an inventory of the sites and records for rare plants in an area. The BSBI is encouraging each of its local recorders to produce a register for the area (usually a county or part of a county) for which they keep the records. Although they follow a broadly similar scheme, they vary a lot in detail. Some provide a very detailed historical account. Some describe the ecology and biology of the plants in a region. Some are much more explicit than others in publishing the localities of plants. Our neighbours in Dorset, Sussex and Wiltshire have already published printed Registers. In Berkshire, Mick Crawley has abstracted the relevant taxa from his new County Flora to publish his electronically. Surrey is working on producing theirs, like us.
