Musk storksbill

For the last couple of years the Botanical Society of the British Isles have organised a New Year plant hunt, the aim being to see how many flowering species you can find in three hours. As it was bright and sunny today, Pete and I went up to Stamford to do our stint, and came back with a very respectable total of 37 species. Many of these were expected - daisies, dandelions, annual meadow grass - but there were a few surprises too.

On a sunny verge next to a pub we found a very large population of musk storksbill Erodium moschatum, which has bright pink flowers with sticky glandular hairs on the sepals. It's a scarce species, which is most frequent around the south-west coast, growing in disturbed areas and road verges, but it also has quite a few inland records. It's only the second time this species has been recorded in South Lincolnshire.

A rather strange looking fleabane proved even more exciting - it turned out to be Guernsey fleabane Conyza sumatrensis, a new species to me that's apparently never been recorded before in South Lincolnshire. So a new life tick on the 2nd January - does this bode well for the rest of the year?

Thanks for all the positive comments on yesterday's image and our garden survey. That's already thrown up some minor excitement - a millipede new to Cambridegshire!