introduction

The want of a field-guide has for many years greatly hindered further spread of interest in British field-bryology. Filling this gap in the market will transform a backwater of natural history into an accessible and popular interest for naturalists. The British Bryological Society therefore intends to produce an identification guide for mosses, liverworts and hornworts, specifically for use in the field, and making extensive use of photographs to aid identification. By making it easier to take up field-bryology, a field-guide will attract many naturalists to the subject for the first time, as well as to membership of our Society. This field-guide is the British Bryological Society’s first venture into the market for popular books, and so stands to become our most widely influential publication, reaching far beyond current membership and into the wider community of naturalists beyond.

Accounts for individual species, and photographs, are being provided by BBS members. As new accounts become available, or existing ones are modified, they are placed online, so please do keep checking back.

If you wish to be emailed whenever a new update has been made please let us know.

Photograph appeal: In order to complete the Field Guide we need more photographs of individual species. Please consider whether you have any which would be suitable. More details of requirements here. Or to go straight to the list of required species .

Latest Updates:

(9/12/2008) The latest species accounts have been uploaded. These now match the versions in the prototype hard-copy of the Field Guide. (Earlier technical problems have now been resolved - many apologies for any inconvenience).

(13/12/2008) Some species accounts were missing from the last batch. These have now been added so that all available accounts are now online.

(13/12/2008) Updated preliminary pages: Foreword, keys, galleries etc. are now available.

See "who does what" for a complete summary of who is involved with the project and progress to date.

Note that the species accounts, introductory pages, key and book covers are all provided as PDF (Portable Document Format) files. If you find you are unable to view these files it may be that you do not have the Adobe Acrobat PDF reader installed, or have an out of date version. Go the Adobe website to get the latest version.