Two events coming up next weekend:

Saturday 11 October:  tree walk on Tooting Common, London Borough of Lambeth, starting at 11 a.m.

Report:  Although only six people turned up for this event, everyone seems to have enjoyed rather more than the scheduled 90 minutes examining many of the trees growing towards to the northeast corner of the Common.   These included recently planted European hackberry (Celtis australis), long established Italian alder (Alnus cordata), a sapling peach (Prunus persica) which has persisted since 2022, and native pedunculate oak (Querus robur).

‘Many thanks to Roy for sharing his knowledge and expertise with us.’

Sunday 12 October:  Allotment weeds survey, North Mitcham Plot Owners site, London Borough of Merton, starting at 11 a.m.

Report:  Only five other people joined the leader for this event, but we had a good mix of experienced botanists and beginners, and were blessed with bright, warm, sunny weather.  We are grateful to Debbie Morey and other plot-owners for their warm welcome.  As is usual with these surveys we found a wide mixture of both wild and escaped-from-cultivation plants.  In all 121 species were recorded; the list is available from the South London Botanical Institute – info@slbi.org.uk

Both free, and booking unnecessary; for details see the Events page on this website.

Images:  upper, Italian alder on Tooting Common, lower, field marigold (Calendula arvensis), a ‘rather uncommon casual’ and an unexpected find in the allotments, both October 2025.