July 2017 was a relatively successful month with 19 items of information being received from 19 contributors, bringing the total up to 7507 items from 2095 contributors.

Unfortunately there were problems with the website for much of the month, so we don’t know how many searches of it were made, or whether these searches were successful; if you think you are experiencing problems please e-mail roy@plant-lore.com.  Thanks to Trevor Maskery who has, we hope, repaired things.

Plant walks were led at Cranham Marsh Nature Reserve, Ruskin Park, Sutton Community Farm and Tooting Common, all in the London area.

Good progress was made with the writing of  A Folk Flora (which the publishers seem to have decided will be called Vickery’s Folk Flora, and have definitely scheduled for publication in 2019), and two publications appeared:

R. Vickery, Cemetery Plants:  oxeye daisy (Leucanthemum vulgare), Friends of Brompton Cemetery Magazine, 57: 2.

R. Vickery, [review of] Ireland’s generous nature: the past and present uses of wild plants in Ireland, by Peter Wyse Jackson, in Folk Life 55: 62-3.

Image:  fridge magnet, depicting statue of Bear and Strawberry Tree (madroño, Arbutus unedo) in Puerta del Sol, Madrid, purchased July 2017.  The bear and tree symbol has been associated with the city since early in the thirteenth century, but it is unclear when and why the tree became identified as a madroño.