2022-12-31-accounts - British Bryological Society

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British Bryological Society

A Charity Registered in England and Wales – No. 228851

Annual Report of the Trustees 2022

Annual General Meeting 2023

The next AGM will be held at 4.30 p.m. on Saturday 9th September 2023 at Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh

Agenda

Apologies for absence
Minutes of the last AGM, held at Teesside University, Middlesbrough on Saturday 10th September 2022
Matters arising
Annual Report of the Trustees for 2022
Accounts and Treasurer’s report for 2022
Report from Council
Election of Officers
a. Vice-President
b. General Secretary
c. Treasurer
d. Librarian
e. Membership Secretary
f. Recorder for Liverworts
g. Recorder for Mosses
h. Recording Secretary
i. Conservation Officer
j. Elected member
Appointment of Independent Examiner of the Accounts
Changes to the Rules
Place and date of the next Annual General Meeting
Other future meetings
Any other business

BRITISH BRYOLOGICAL SOCIETY

ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING, MIDDLESBROUGH, 2022

Minutes of the Annual General Meeting at 4.30 p.m. on Saturday 10th September 2022 at Teesside University, Middlesbrough campus

Present: Dr E.M. Kungu (President, in the chair) and 28 others.

1. Apologies for absence were received from: K.J. Adams, O.L. Pescott, A. Branson, M.L. Rayner, N.G. Hodgetts, M. Stribley, L. Ruffino, K. Rogers, M. Watling and S. Heathcote

2. Minutes of the last AGM, held at Plas Caerdeon, Barmouth on 12th September 2021.

Following a proposal from M. Crittenden, seconded by S. Pilkington, the Minutes were approved as a correct record of the meeting and will be signed by the President.

3. Matters arising:

Gordon Rothero reiterated his gratitude for the Honorary membership awarded to him at the last AGM.

4. Annual Report of the Trustees for 2021

There were no further questions on the Annual Report of the Trustees and it was received by the meeting.

5. Accounts and Treasurer’s Report for 2021

There were no questions on the Accounts and Treasurer’s report; they had been approved by Council and the Independent Examiner and were accepted by the meeting.

A written Treasurer’s interim report to the end June 2022 had already been submitted to Council, the main points of which were:

Interim accounts to the end of June 2022 were presented. Receipts and payments are in line with expectations. The value of our investments has fallen in line with the fall in the value of the stock market.
Internet banking and access with NatWest is in the final stages of being set up.
In answer to a previous question, the Treasurer clarified that any changes to the CCLA (investment) accounts require two authorised signatories.
Gift Aid – work is under way to claim outstanding contributions from HRMC.
The Society holds a higher than average level of reserves.
R.H. Carter commended the Treasurer for her comprehensive interim report.

6. Report from Council

The President’s Report from Council, which was given at the meeting, will be published as Council Newsletter No. 39 in the May 2023 issue of Field Bryology (No. 129) .

7. Election of Officers

No nominations had been received from members following the notice published in Field Bryology , for these or any other posts.

Council made the following nominations for the officers who were due for re-election:

a. Bulletin Editor (Joint) C.D. Preston b. Bulletin Editor (Joint) A. Branson c. Website Editor (Joint) C. Halpin d. Website Editor (Joint) A. Baker e. Education and Training Officer M. Crittenden

The meeting agreed to elect these en bloc . Following a proposal by P. Thompson seconded by J. Sleath , these Officers were duly elected by a majority vote (to serve for a 2-year period commencing 1st January 2023).

As the Meetings Secretary, L. Ruffino, had indicated that she would be stepping down from that post at the end of 2022, Council nominated P. Thompson . After a proposal by E. Kungu, seconded by M. Crittenden, P. Thompson was elected as Meetings Secretary (to serve for a 2-year period commencing 1st January 2023).

Election of Elected Members of Council

Council nominated Sue Grahame , Rory Hodd and George Greiff for election. These were proposed by P. Thompson, N. Bell and J. Sleath respectively, seconded by A. Baker, G. Rothero and M. Crittenden respectively. All three were elected unanimously and will serve for a 3-year period commencing 1st January 2023.

8. Appointment of Independent Examiner of Accounts

M. Murtagh had agreed to continue in this role. After a proposal by M.A.S. Burton, seconded by C. Halpin, M. Murtagh was unanimously elected as Independent Examiner of the Accounts.

9. Place and date of the next Annual General Meeting

The next Annual General Meeting will take place on Saturday 9th September 2023 at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh.

10. Other future meetings

P. Thompson delivered a brief outline of planned future meetings. The current list is still rather sparse as the pandemic continues to cast its shadow. However, it was confirmed that the spring 2023 meeting in the Lake District is planned to go ahead from 25th to 31st March. There were, as yet, no firm plans for a summer 2023 meeting, but Coll & Tiree was a possibility still to be confirmed. The autumn 2023 meeting will be the BBS centenary meeting in the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh from 9th to 12th September 2023. Spring and summer meetings for 2024 have still to be confirmed, but it was hoped that the much-postponed meeting in Hungary would take place sometime in spring 2024.

11. Any other business.

The Secretary gave notice that Council had agreed that two changes should be made to the Rules of the Society to be put to a vote at the next AGM in 2023:

1). The Managing Editor of the Journal of Bryology had formerly been employed by the BBS and was paid out of BBS funds. That is no longer the case. Although the Managing Editor could attend Council meetings, he or she was specifically debarred from being a full voting member.

Therefore, to remedy this anomaly, it was proposed that Section 5 Management of the Society (a) be amended as follows:

‘ The Officers of the Society shall be President, Vice-President, General Secretary, Treasurer, Editor or Editors (including the Managing Editor of the Journal of Bryology but excluding the Scientific Editors), Librarian and such others as the Society may appoint. The President and the Vice-President shall not be debarred from simultaneously holding one of the other offices of the Society apart from those of General Secretary or Treasurer.’

2). The Society’s Rules state that there should be a quorum of 10 eligible members at Special General meetings or of Council meetings, but there is no mention of a quorum for AGMs. The Charity Commission’s guidance strongly recommends that a charity’s governing document should specify a quorum for both a trustees’ meeting and an AGM. Therefore, it is recommended that the BBS Rules should be amended to include a quorum of 15 eligible members for an AGM.

Notice of the intention to change these items will be published in the May 2023 edition of Field Bryology (No. 129).

There being no further business, the meeting closed when the President’s gavel came down at 17.30.

D.J. Scott, Hon. General Secretary, September 2022

British Bryological Society

A Charity Registered in England and Wales – No. 228851

Annual Report of the Trustees for the year 2022

Address of Principal Office: 19 Abbotts Grove, Peterborough, PE4 5BP

Trustees at the date this report was approved:

Dr K.J. Adams (Librarian) Dr A. Baker (Website Editor, Joint) Mr A. Branson (Bulletin Editor, Joint) Dr M.A.S. Burton (Past-President) Ms M. Crittenden (Education and Training Officer) Dr E.S. Grahame (Elected Member) * Mr G.R.L. Greiff (Elected Member) * Ms C. Halpin (Website Editor, Joint and Membership Secretary) Dr R.I.L. Hodd (Elected Member) * Mr N.G. Hodgetts (Recorder for Liverworts) Dr E. M. Kungu (President) Mr P.G. Martin (Vice-President) Dr O.L. Pescott (Recording Secretary) Ms S.L. Pilkington (Recorder for Mosses) Dr C.D. Preston (Bulletin Editor, Joint) Ms G. Quartly-Bishop (Treasurer) Ms M. Rayner (Elected Member) Ms K. Rogers (Elected Member) Mr G.P. Rothero (Conservation Officer) Ms P. Thompson (Meetings Secretary) Mr D.J. Scott (General Secretary) Mr R. Whytock (Elected Member) *Trustees in 2023, but not during 2022

In addition, the following served as Trustees during 2022

Ms L. Ruffino, Mr M. Stribley

The Constitution of the British Bryological Society

The governing document of the British Bryological Society is The BBS Rules, adopted April 1963, amended 12 April 2003, 6 September 2003 and 9 September 2006.

Organisation

The British Bryological Society is managed by a Council which meets twice a year; Council members are the Trustees of the Society. The Council comprises the Officers of the Society, the immediate Past President, and six elected members.

Appointment of Trustees

Officers of the Society are elected at an Annual General Meeting for a term of two years. The six Elected Members each serve for three years, two being elected at each Annual General Meeting. Prospective trustees are asked to read the Charity Commission’s publication The Essential Trustee as a check of their eligibility, and newly appointed trustees are asked to sign the Charity Commission Trustee Eligibility Declaration.

Public Benefit Statement

The trustees have complied with the Charity Commission requirement for the BBS to provide identifiable public benefits, and have had due regard to the Charity Commission public benefit guidance when exercising any powers or duties to which the guidance is relevant. Of the descriptions of charitable purposes set out by the Charities Act, the work of the BBS is covered by the following: b) the advancement of education; f) the advancement of the arts, culture, heritage or science; and i) the advancement of environmental protection or improvement. Details of the ways in which public benefit has been delivered during 2022 are given in the account of BBS achievements below.

Objectives of the BBS

(a) To promote and advance all branches of bryology throughout the world and especially in relation to bryophytes of the British and Ireland;
(b) To facilitate the exchange of information among bryologists by organising field meetings, conferences, lectures and exhibitions, publishing the results of bryological study and research, maintaining a library, and other appropriate means;
(c) To promote in every way possible the conservation of bryophytes.

Activities of the BBS

(a) Publication of journals and books relating to bryology
(b) Maintaining a website
(c) Maintaining a library of bryological literature
(d) Organisation of meetings and workshops
(e) Promoting awareness of bryophytes, and providing advice and education
(f) Gathering information about bryophytes and their natural habitats
(g) Conservation of bryophytes
(h) Sponsoring or supporting bryological research

The BBS is registered for Gift Aid. The BBS neither owns nor leases any land or buildings.

Achievements during 2022

1. Membership and Volunteers

At the end of 2022, our membership stood at 691 paid up members, with a net gain of 58 members during the year. Although there is a steady turnover of membership, the overall trend is an increasing membership. Claire Halpin took over as Membership Secretary at the start of the year, and has worked hard to establish email contact with the majority of the membership, send reminders to those members who inadvertently failed to pay their subscriptions, sort out the gift aid membership, arrange online access to the bank account, and rationalise the numbers and payments from institution members.

2. Journal of Bryology

The Journal continues to thrive with Neil Bell as managing editor. Although there was some delay in

production of the issues 2 ̵ 4 of Volume 44 due to lack of content in the middle of the year, publication is set to be almost back on schedule within the next couple of months. The last issue of Volume 44 will be devoted to the updated IUCN Red List of Bryophytes in Britain. Volume 44 of The Journal will run to 401 pages when fully published, similar to volumes 43 (412 pages) and 42 (414 pages). The most notable achievements in volume 44 were the publishing of the new British IUCN Red List (to appear in issue 44(4)), the ‘fundamental questions’ monograph and Fedosov et al .’s ‘Integrative floristics: a modern approach to biodiversity surveys in the molecular era, as applied to an expedition to the Khamar-Daban range, southern Siberia, Russia’. The latter article reports the results of a major expedition to southern Siberia with a novel use of molecular methods to facilitate identifications.

Five species new to science were described – Hymenostylium chapadense M.J.Cano & J.A.Jiménez from Brazil, Vinealobryum islandicum R.H.Zander from Iceland , Algaria overbergensis Hedd. & R.H.Zander from South Africa, Hennediella austroafricana Hedd. & M.J.Cano from South Africa and Glyphomitrium ambiguum Fedosov, Ignatova & Ignatov from Russia.

The New National and Regional Bryophyte (NNRBR) column remains popular, although with considerably fewer entries (80) compared with last year (163). This is partially due to the column not appearing in 44(4), which is entirely devoted to the Red List, and partially to fewer contributions being received (perhaps due to the impact of the covid pandemic on fieldwork).

The impact factor for The Journal in 2021 (the latest year for which we have data), was 1.667, considerably up from 1.361 in 2020. The Journal currently has 11 Scientific Editors, a copy-editor, and a proof reader and the managing editor is immensely grateful to all of them for their hard work.

3. Field Bryology

The two issues published in 2022 followed the usual pattern, with the May issue (96 pages) longer than the one appearing in November (56 pages). As we anticipated last year, we were again able to include field meeting reports from May onwards, after their absence during the covid pandemic. The focus of the articles in 2022 was almost exclusively on the bryophytes of Britain and Ireland, but we did include one study of a bryologically rich area of France (the eastern Queyras) and a biographical account of Michael Proctor’s life.

4. BBS Website

The BBS Website continues to provide an excellent resource for bryologists nationally and globally, and after all the hard work in previous years setting up the new website this year has been mostly routine content maintenance.

Many of the regional groups use the Events section to publicise meetings and to post meeting reports. There is now information provided on specific habitats, including reservoirs, arable land and calcareous grasslands. Considerable information has been added to the Species Finder pages. These provide direct access to the relevant page of the BBS publications the Field Guide and Atlas for any given species plus many additional macro and micro photographs and additional sources of information. Claire Halpin, Sharon Pilkington, Sean O’Leary and Jonathan Sleath have made extensive contributions to these pages, and we are very grateful for their input.

Dr Phil Stanley has been very helpful throughout the year in providing scanned copies of many historical documents which are now available to the membership.

5. Other Publications

The BBS Mosses and Liverworts of Britain and Ireland – a field guide continues to sell well, and work is in progress on producing a 2nd edition to include the taxonomic changes of the last 20 years.

6. Library and Sales

The BBS Library continues to be hosted at Treborth Botanic Garden, Bangor and Jane Smith has now taken over from Sean Russell as assistant Librarian for the day to day running. We continue to exchange Field Bryology for the Belgian Muscillanea and Swiss Meylania and the Journal of Bryology for various Polish publications. Free PDFs of Microscope Techniques for Beginners and Bryophyte Microscopy are available. Nineteen copies of the Census Catalogue of British and Irish Bryophytes 2021 were sold, plus other small items of bryological equipment.

7. Meetings

In 2022 the Society organised two main field meetings and an annual indoor meeting. The spring meeting, held in Cornwall, was attended by approximately 30 people. Just under 3000 records were made, seven of which were new v-c. records or ‘debrackets’ for VC1 and VC2. Two tetrads with few records were visited in a county which previously has had very good tetrad coverage, and many important sites were re-recorded at monad level.

A summer meeting was held on the Island of Jura, attended by 15 people. Over 2700 records were made, predominantly in monads that held no, or very few, previous records. Twenty-three new v-c. records were found during the week.

The AGM in September was attended by around 30 members. It was held at Teesside University in Middlesbrough, with paper readings on the Saturday and an interesting excursion to South Gare, a brownfield site adjacent to a coastal dune system on the Sunday. One hundred and sixty-two records were made of 70 taxa with a total of six new v-c. records and debrackets.

There are now 25 local recording groups and many of these are very active, holding regular smaller meetings throughout the year which usually combine recording the local areas with teaching and encouraging beginners. Reports of many of these meetings are available on the website.

The Society is grateful to all those involved in the hard work of organising these meetings, as well as to the attendees who have contributed their time and effort to make them a success.

8. Education and Training

The Education and Training Committee has been very active during 2022 in developing new ideas to expand the Society’s role in this area. Nick Hodgetts has been commissioned to compile new bryophyte keys which will complement those in the Field Guide by including microscopic as well as field characters for identification. Mags Crittenden has started to develop an online course to teach bryophyte identification, and Pete Martin has been looking at the support required to help our new or recently recruited vice-county recorders.

A number of very popular and successful workshops/courses have taken place during the year. A group of eleven people met at Treborth Botanic Gardens, near Bangor, in February to join Lucia Ruffino and Philippa Thompson for the BBS Liverwort Beginner’s workshop. The group was very fortunate to be supported by Shaun Russell, former curator. In May, the NE Scotland Bryophyte group organised a beginners training workshop at the James Hutton Institute, Aberdeen. Mags Crittenden ran a course on ‘Using the Field Guide to identify Bryophytes’ in October where she had attendees from Cornwall, Leicestershire and Switzerland among others. There is clearly a need for this type of course which would be classified as for ‘Beginners with some experience’. Most BBS courses continue to be oversubscribed and further courses are being planned for the coming years.

9. Recording Mosses and Liverworts

Post- Census Catalogue , it is fitting that BRC were able to appoint a new botanical assistant in 2022, permitting us to make much faster progress across numerous BBS-related tasks. During 2022 we have completed the updates required to bring both the BBS database and the UK Species Inventory (UKSI)

in line with the new BBS checklist; performed, and updated, numerous MS Access-based quality checks on incoming data; processed most data (around 46 sets comprising almost 100,000 records) and amendments received post- Census Catalogue ; and led on the recent Field Bryology post- Atlas database summary. On the back of all this hard work, we were able to distribute updated vice-county datasets to all Regional Recorders in November 2022. Three new Regional Recorders were appointed in 2022 and two vice-counties now lack a recorder due to recent retirements. Bryophyte recorders using iRecord submitted around 13,400 records in 2022, indicating a rich source of data and local enthusiasm. There were around 40 direct requests for the Society’s raw data or summaries during the year. These requests supported individual recorders, bryological consultants, and the planning of BBS field meetings, among other things. As usual, the number of direct requests to the Recording Secretary does not capture the numerous downloads of BBS data from the NBN or GBIF.

In 2022 there were 244 moss additions and amendments to the census catalogue, fewer than in 2021. But the 68 liverwort amendments were an increase on 2021. However, for the first time since 2019, a significant number of moss records (24) were generated through resumption of spring and summer field meetings in Cornwall and Jura, respectively, and 5 liverwort vice-county records from the Jura meeting. Many species/vice-county combinations were newly bracketed by the 2021 Census Catalogue, and 32% of the moss vouchers submitted in 2022 were de-bracketers compared to 16% the previous year.

Four new moss taxa were added to the British and Irish moss flora, including Tortula bolanderi from Norfolk, and Leucobryum albidum , a species previously overlooked as variation within our other two Leucobryum species.

It was a successful and prolific moss and liverwort recording year in Scotland with some superb discoveries. Dicranum elongatum , on Skye, is the first new record of this rarity in many years. Other Scottish highlights include new populations of the mosses Andreaea sinuosa , Cynodontium strumiferum , Philonotis rigida and Grimmia elongata and the liverworts Sphenolobus saxicola and Nardia breidleri , the latter both from the Cairngorms and last seen in their vice-counties in 1898. Riccia fluitans was recorded new to Scotland twice. Several liverwort records extended the species’ known range.

Fewer vouchers were received from Ireland than in 2021, but nonetheless there were some exceptionally good finds, especially in Northern Ireland, which is normally more poorly recorded than the Republican vice-counties. The mosses Grimmia longirostris , G. muehlenbeckii and Bryoerythrophyllum campylocarpum (the latter also found for the first time this year in mainland Scotland and England) and the liverwort Mesoptychia fitzgeraldiae in Co. Antrim were all very significant new records.

Numbers of vice county records for both mosses and liverworts were also down in Wales. Among the best finds there were the mosses Grimmia elongata in Pembrokeshire, Ephemerum cohaerens , Micromitrium tenerum , and Aloina brevirostris , the last new to Wales.

English highlights include a significant SW extension of range for the rare moss Tomentypnum nitens onto Exmoor. Bryologists taking advantage of exceptionally low water levels in the autumn to search reservoir sediment for inundation zone specialists reported populations of Physcomitrium readeri and Riccia huebeneriana as far apart as Sussex and Cornwall and Hampshire. Climate change probably means that we will see these plants more frequently in future. For the liverworts, Southbya tophacea from a chalk bank by a forestry track in Dorset was one of the most pleasing records of the year. This rare plant also had a new record last year (in Ireland), other significant records include Sphaerocarpos michelii and Targionia hypophylla from Somerset.

Financial Review 2022 – Accounts and Treasurer’s Report

These accounts were approved by Council on 25[th] March 2023 and have been agreed by the Independent Examiner. His certificate is reproduced below.

Treasurer’s report

Notes to the accounts for the Financial Year 1 January to 31 December 2022

Amounts in this report are rounded to the nearest pound.

1 As permitted under section 133 of the Charities Act 2011, the accounts have been prepared on the receipts and payments basis. All funds are unrestricted. Receipts and payments are presented net of rebates settled through Paypal.

2 Some assets are assigned by the trustees to the Bequest and Donation Fund, to provide investment income from which grants are made. When this Fund was established on 1st January 1995, its status was not explicit. The trustees wish to make it clear that they regard the Fund as expendable endowment, in view of the large size, in the context of the normal expenditure of the Society, of the legacies that have gone into formation of the Fund. With regard to future donations and legacies, if any evidence exists, or can be inferred from the circumstances of the donation or legacy, that a donor or testator had a specific intention one way or the other, the gift or legacy will be treated accordingly and, if appropriate, administered by the Bequest Committee. Where there is no such evidence, the gift or legacy will, except as described below, be treated as income and added to the accumulated monies available for disbursement by the Bequest Committee. Where the gift or legacy is a large sum (£500 or more) in the context of the normal expenditure of the Society, the trustees consider it reasonable to assume that the donor or testator would not have expected the Society necessarily to spend promptly such a sum of money, but would have expected the Society to invest the gift or legacy as expendable endowment and to use the income, unless and until the trustees choose to embark on some major project on which the endowed funds could reasonably be spent. Any such gift or legacy regarded as an addition to endowment will be noted in the accounts and will be invested along with the Bequest and Donation Fund; the resulting income will be available for disbursement by the Bequest Committee.

3 In 2022, royalties of £11,719 were received from the publisher and the costs of the purchase of members’ copies of £14,799 were paid out. It can be seen that royalties have declined below the level of cost of purchase, which means that the Journal made a loss of £3,080. Payments of editorial expenses have been separated from costs of purchase of members’ copies for the first time to enable matching to the relevant advance. Note: Following Council decisions in 2006 the Journal of Bryology Editor was not a member of Council. The Editor received remuneration commensurate with the work involved and took on financial responsibility for any expenses incurred that related to editing the journal. This is covered by an editorial advance paid by the Publisher (Taylor and Francis).

4 Sales of the Field Guide in 2022 in the year net of Paypal rebates were £17,706. Costs associated with the Field Guide were nil as there were no reprint or other publishing-related expenses in year for this title. The surplus in 2022 was therefore £17,706 (2021: £15,182. 2020: £8,659. 2019: deficit £6,313. 2018: surplus £11,821.) Over its lifetime, the Field Guide to date has provided a net surplus to the Society.

5 Census catalogue publication. Sales revenue of £183 was below costs associated with the 2022 edition of the Census catalogue, which were £391.

6 In 2022, Field Bryology numbers 127 and 128 were published. Actual payments in year totalled £12,580, being the amounts owed for issue 126 (November 2020) as well as numbers 127 and 128.

7 The Council of the British Bryological Society agreed in 2018 to back a Monograph for Bryaceae financially with a loan of up to £12,500 in support of publication. The first tranche of £2,000 was paid for the production of plates in 2018, with a further £2,000 paid in 2020, along with £800

paid to the publisher. The book has now been published, and final publication costs of £8,140 are presented in the 2021 accounts. In 2022, sales of £6,427 took place and there were no further publication costs incurred.

8 £1,500 was paid out in 2022 in relation to grants awarded from the Bequests & Donation Fund. This was awarded to Des Callaghan to support research into Thamnobryum .

9 Deposit Funds are deposited with CCLA. As at the December 2022 statement, the General Fund was £87,040 and Bequest & Donation Fund was £15,776 making a total of £102,816 shown in cash assets. The General Fund owes the Bequest & Donation Fund £3,366 for the net amounts paid out of General Fund cash accounts on its behalf (carried forward from 2019).

10 Reserves policy: the Society maintains reserves, amounting to the fund balances (less commitments) at year end, to provide contingent resources to enable it to meet its contractual commitment towards ongoing publication of the Journal of Bryology , to support and underwrite the cost of publishing projects, to meet requests from within the Society or from other bodies for financial help in the promotion of bryology, to pay upfront and underwrite costs of meetings, and to meet unforeseen costs. With regard to the financial implications and risks of the Society’s charitable activities, the trustees consider that the reserve should not fall below £100,000. In the event that it does, the trustees may consider raising the level of the membership subscription and/or re-designation of part of the Bequest and Donation Fund. Most funds, while being held in reserve, are placed on deposit to earn interest or invested to provide income. This policy is reviewed annually at the first Council meeting of the year as part of the process of approving the Accounts (including Notes to the Accounts).

11 Bryophyte Atlas. Royalties of £416 were received from the publisher, NatureBureau, in November 2022. The 2021 amount is for 2021 and 2020 royalties combined, which were received together in November 2021.

12 Meetings. In 2022 the Society held several in-person meetings. Meeting expenses of £5,982 exceeded receipts of £5,433, a small loss of £549.

13 Records dataset management. In 2021, the Society made a one-off payment to Sharon Pilkington for her services in collating a large dataset of bryophyte records. Sharon is a trustee of the Society and the payment has been disclosed to the Charity Commission as required by the prevailing guidance.

Gail Quartly-Bishop, March 2023

Independent examine$ report to the trustees of the British Bryological Society I report to the trustees on my examination of the accounts of the British Bryological Society for the year ended 31" December 2022. Respective Responsibilities of the ITUStees and the examiner The charity's trustees are responsible for the preparation of the accounts. They consider that an audit is not required for this year under section 144 of the Charlties Act 2011 {'Ihe Act'l and that an independent examination is needed. My responsibilities= to examine the accounts in accordan with section 145 of the Act to follow the prOdre$ laid down in the general directions given by the Charily Commission under section 145{51{bl of the Act to state whether particular matters have come to my attention Independent examiner's statement I have completed my examination. I confirm that no material matters have come to my attention in connection with the examination giving me cause to believe that in any material respect.. l. accounting records were not kept in respect of the Trust as required by sertion 130 of the Act. or 2. the accounts do not accord with those records. I have no concems and have come across no olher matters in connection with the examination to which attention should be drawn in Ihis report in order to enable a proper underslanding of the accounts lo be reached. MT Murtagh FCCA 49 Farleigh Fields Orton Wistow Peterborough PE2 6YB 29, March 2023 15

Officers’ Reports for 2022

General Secretary

It is pleasing to see, after a few difficult years, that the Society can now confidently display the ‘Business as usual’ sign in the website window. 2022 saw the eagerly anticipated publication of Jean Paton’s A Supplement to the Liverwort Flora of the British Isles . The 2022 spring meeting was held in Cornwall and was centred not far from Jean’s home in Probus. So, it was a delight for old friends to meet up for dinner and spend some time in the field with her, as well as a privilege for those of us who had not met her before to make her acquaintance. The BBS was more than happy to assist in the marketing and taking of orders of the Supplement thanks to the combined efforts of website editor, Claire Halpin, and Council member, Matt Stribley.

Jeff Scott, March 2023

Field Bryology Editors

Andrew Branson & Chris Preston, March 2023

Website Editors

After a busy couple of years, work on the website settled down in 2022 and has been mostly routine content maintenance. Several local groups now use the Events section to publicise meetings and to post meeting reports. We continue to post relevant News items when we hear about them, and have started to post on topical themes such as Reservoir habitats (autumn 2022) and Arable land (winter 2022/23).

Work on the Species Finder pages is ongoing. We have made a first pass through all species uploading photos, and are now going back filling in some gaps. We would like to thank Sharon Pilkington particularly for her work on additional identification notes on these pages. Sean O’Leary and Jonathan Sleath have also made significant contributions, so thanks are due to them too. There has been some work on a Habitat section to the website, and again, thanks to Sharon for contributing the page on Calcareous grassland.

Dr Phil Stanley has been very helpful throughout the year in providing scanned copies of many historical documents such as old Atlases, membership lists, Annual reports. Many of these have already been uploaded to the website, and others are work in progress. Several other members have also contributed images, News posts and other information, so thank you to everyone who has helped with content throughout the year.

Thanks are also due to Castlegate IT, who keep our website up and running. We have had a couple of minor problems with availability this year, but Castlegate usually pick these up and resolve them before anyone else is aware. There are no plans at present for any major enhancements to the website.

Claire Halpin & Ambroise Baker, February 2023

Librarian

Sales:
Census Catalogue (update) 2008	-
Census Catalogue (update) 2021	19
BBS_Bulletins_	-
Field Bryology	13
English Names of Bryophytes	-
Practical Bryophyte Chromosomes(Newton)	-
Collecting Bryos. in the Tropics(O'Shea)	-
Chinese x20 lenses	5
Chinese x30 lenses	3
Idealtek Stainless steel forceps	14
Mini-blade packs of 10	1
Micrometer Eyepiece Scales	1
Loans:
Micrometer calibration slide	-
Chinese Microscope	1
free pdfsMicroscope techniques 1 & 2	2

There were just 14 standard sales orders in 2022, but 19 copies were distributed of the updated Census Catalogue of British & Irish Bryophytes with the new bracketing cut-off at 1970 and adoption of most of the new European Catalogue 2020 names. In addition to sales items, two beginners have taken advantage of the free pdfs of Microscope Techniques for Beginners and Bryophyte Microscopy tips during the year. Jane Smith has now taken over from Sean Russell as assistant Librarian for the day to day running of the BBS Library at the Treborth Botanic Garden, Bangor. We are continuing to exchange Field Bryology for the Belgian Muscillanea and Swiss Meylania and J. Bryol . for various Polish publications.

Ken Adams, February 2023

Membership Secretary

I took over as Membership Secretary at the start of 2022 and have had a year of being a ‘new broom’, as the many members who have received emails or letter from me on one subject or another will doubtless testify!

The first task was reconciling subscription payments with individual members, and sorting out some of the discrepancies – members paying too little, not paying at all, a few paying twice... I’ve also made a concerted effort to update and track down up-to-date email addresses for everyone. This enabled me to send out email reminders in April, May and June to those who hadn’t paid, resulting in many members who may have unintentionally allowed their membership to lapse, to re-join sooner rather than later. This in turn reduced the number of requests for back issues of the Journal and Field Bryology .

We managed to sort out online banking with NatWest by mid-year (thanks to our Treasurer for helping with this) which again has made life easier, both for checking payments and paying in cheques. Gift Aid was a bit of a problem, as most of the signed Gift Aid forms had been mislaid at some point over the years, and so I decided to start from scratch with an appeal to all members at the end of the year to complete a new form if they are able to donate Gift Aid.

Finally, I reviewed the list of institutional members, and removed some institutions which no longer existed, I was unable to reach, or did not wish to continue. Institutional subscriptions now tend to be

managed by third party agents who can be difficult to deal with, however, I have managed to make contact with the remaining 8 institutions or their agents and set up a system for renewals going forward. I hope that the Membership Secretary from over 15 years ago will no longer receive letters and cheques from these agents by post!

At the end of 2022, our membership stood at 691 members, broken down as follows:

Honorary: 10 Ordinary: 610 Junior: 3 Senior: 17 Student: 43 Institutional: 8

During 2022, changes to the membership can be summarised as follows:

• 137 members joined

• 36 members either resigned or we were notified of their decease

• 43 members allowed their membership to lapse with no contact Therefore, there was a net gain of 58 members. The number of people joining and leaving this year is remarkably close to the figures for 2021 (138 and 77 respectively). As in previous years, there is quite a high turnover of members who join for a year but then allow their membership to lapse. Overall though, the membership at present seems to be growing year-on-year.

Claire Halpin, February 2023

Education and Training Officer

Several workshops/ courses have occurred this year. As reported in September, Mags Crittenden ran a course on ‘Using the Field Guide to identify Bryophytes’ in October 2022, where she had attendees from Cornwall, Leicestershire and Switzerland, among others. There is clearly a need for this type of course which would be classified as for ‘Beginners with experience’. Lucia Ruffino will be running her online and face-to-face courses this year for COFNOD. She has had to double up as there was such a large demand. Again, a pointer to a need for more beginner-level courses. David Holyoak ran his workshop on the Bryaceae in January 2023 which was oversubscribed, furthering the support for more training. A Liverwort course run by Nick Hodgetts is planned for 2024. Courses on Acrocarps and Pleurocarps are being planned for 2025 and 2026.

The results of a questionnaire sent to recorders asking if they needed more support and, if so, what type of support were reported by Peter Martin. The main issues appeared to be the use of Excel/ QGIS/ MapMate and also the lack of online and in-the-field training for recorders. The Recorder’s Handbook is still a valuable resource. A Recording Conference which would be accessible to all, not just recorders, is a possibility for 2024 tacked onto the AGM weekend. This would include some training in mapping and recording, as well as training in the field. Thank you to the recorders who were able to respond. Watson-type keys for all the mosses have now been produced by Nick Hodgetts and will be available on the website. These will need some revision and the membership is encouraged to trial these and send revisions or comments to Nick via the website. We are very grateful to Nick for this very large body of work and look forward to the next tranche of keys on liverworts.

Mags Crittenden continues to work on an online course to be launched at the September 2023 AGM as part of the BBS Centenary. Thank you to John O’Reilly of Ptyxis Ecology for very pertinent advice. As part of the development of this course, online support groups will be started via Zoom. In future, educational resources will be shared and developed via a Google Drive associated with the education@ email address which can then be shared with whoever would like to contribute. When documents are deemed to have been finished, they can then be uploaded to the Members area of the website.

Mags Crittenden, March 2023

Meetings Secretary

In 2022 the Society organised two main field meetings and an annual indoor meeting. The spring meeting, held in Cornwall, was attended by approximately thirty people. Just under 3000 records were made, 7 of which were new v-c. records or ‘debrackets’ for VC1 and VC2. Two tetrads with few records were visited in a county which previously has had very good tetrad coverage, and many important sites were re-recorded at monad level.

A summer meeting was held on the Island of Jura, attended by 15 people. Over 2700 records were made, predominantly in monads that held no, or very few, previous records. 23 new v-c. records were found during the week.

The AGM in September was attended by around 30 members. It was held at Teesside University in Middlesbrough with paper readings on the Saturday and an interesting excursion to South Gare, a brownfield site adjacent to a coastal dune system on the Sunday. 162 records were made of 70 taxa with a total of six new v-c. records and debrackets.

The Society is grateful to all those involved in the hard work of organising these meetings, as well as to the attendees who have contributed their time and effort to make them a success.

Philippa Thompson, February 2023

Recorder for Liverworts

A total of 68 liverwort specimens have been processed this year. The numbers are considerably up on 2021 largely thanks to a very productive trip to the Isle of Man by Des Callaghan. Vouchers from Scotland have also increased, while England and Ireland have stayed about the same. There has been a significant decrease only in Wales, and there are no new vouchers from the Channel Islands. Des Callaghan is the most prolific contributor with 14 vouchers, then Rory Whytock (8), Nick Hodgetts (7), Sharon Pilkington (4), and Gordon Rothero and George Smith (3 each), with many other recorders contributing one or two vouchers. Five vouchers resulted from the summer meeting on Jura.

The vouchers from the Isle of Man have a high proportion of debracketings, reflecting the paucity of resident and visiting bryologists, and also that records from Jean Paton’s bryophyte Flora of the island have gone into brackets in the new Census Catalogue. Of the species that have not previously been recorded from the Isle of Man, the apparent absence of Colura calyptrifolia was a clear gap to be filled, and this has now been done.

The hot, dry summer in the south resulted in a good exposure of mud on the margins of ponds and reservoirs, and a rash of records of Riccia huebeneriana . As well as being recorded from many of its known sites, it was seen for the first time in West Cornwall and both of the Hampshire vice-counties. Another liverwort notable for multiple vouchers is Marsupella aquatica . Lophocolea semiteres has also been newly recorded from four vice-counties, including one in Ireland, as it continues its vigorous onward march.

Andrew Branson’s record of Southbya tophacea from a chalk bank by a forestry track in Dorset is one of the most pleasing records of the year. This rare plant also had a new record last year (in Ireland), and should be looked out for on disturbed calcareous substrates in the south. Andrew also managed to find Aneura mirabilis in Somerset’s Blackdown Hills, another find that is always exciting. Paul Rooney’s Sphaerocarpos michelii from Somerset is significant, being a small south-western extension of its range on the English mainland. Staying in Somerset, Sharon Pilkington found Targionia hypophylla on a cliff in Draycott Sleights Nature Reserve, the first time it has been recorded in the vice-county since PGM Rhodes’ 1915 record in Cheddar Gorge. Targionia is widely perceived

to be on the decline in Britain, but perhaps the increasingly Mediterranean climate of southern England will favour it. One of Des’s Isle of Man vouchers is of Lophozia excisa on quarry spoil; Mark Hill had the same species on ‘fell-field’ vegetation developing over industrial waste at Redcar in Yorkshire.

In Scotland, two records from Arran are particularly striking for their incongruity: Dumortiera hirsuta and Phaeoceros laevis from a waterfall by ‘a car park behind a block of flats’, from Liz Kungu and Hannah Udall. Riccia fluitans was recorded new to Scotland twice, independently. Colura calyptrifolia has appeared at another eastern site, found by Gordon Rothero at Loch Leven in Fife. Rory Whytock’s record of Lophocolea bispinosa at Grantown-on-Spey represents a considerable range extension north of this introduced species, and his Perthshire record of Calypogeia suecica is some way south-east of previous records of that species. Rory has also found two plants last seen in their respective vice-counties by MacVicar in 1898: Sphenolobus saxicola from crags just above Aviemore; and Nardia breidleri from Coire an t’Sneachda in the Cairngorms. Two records of alpine species have emerged from re-examination of herbarium specimens. Rory Whytock’s 2017 Gymnomitrion brevissimum on Ben Lomond, and a 2014 specimen of Marsupella sparsifolia from the Cairngorms collected by Nick Hodgetts.

In Ireland, Plagiochila exigua and Radula voluta , both recorded from Co. Clare by Rory Hodd and Micheline Sheehy Skeffington, fill gaps between the Kerry and Galway populations of these two oceanic species. Mesoptychia fitzgeraldiae in Co. Antrim likewise fills a gap, this time between the limestone of north-west Ireland and the Scottish populations. George Smith has been busy in the still under-recorded Irish midlands, with useful vouchers from Cos. Leix and Offaly.

I have decided not to accept vouchers of the varieties of Lophozia ventricosa for the foreseeable future. The L. ventricosa complex has been something of a muddle for some time, with bryologists in different parts of Europe having different views on the taxa involved. The oil body character that has traditionally been used to differentiate the two varieties of L. ventricosa seems to be pretty worthless, as the nature of the oil bodies changes as specimens age. Some bryologists in continental Europe are working on the L. ventricosa complex, so clarification of this difficult group may emerge in due course. Therefore, only vouchers for L. ventricosa sens. lat. will be accepted until this happens.

	2022					2021
	England	Wales	Scotland	Ireland	Isle of Man	England	Wales	Scotland	Ireland	Isle of Man
New entries	8	3	18	11	6	6	7	13	9	-
Debrackets	7	1	7	1	7	8	2	4	4	-
Persisting	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
Bracketings	1	-	-	-	-	1	-	1	-	-
Deletions	1	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
Totals	17	4	25	12	13	15	9	18	13	-

Nick Hodgetts, February 2023

Recorder for Mosses

In 2022 there were 244 moss additions and amendments to the census catalogue, fewer than in 2021. However, for the first time since 2019, a significant number (24) were generated through resumption of spring and summer field meetings in Cornwall and Jura, respectively.

Many species/vice-county combinations were newly bracketed by the 2021 census catalogue, and 32% of the vouchers submitted in 2022 were debracketers compared to 16% the previous year.

	New records	Updated records	Deletions
England	73 (103)	54 (17)	0 (17)
Wales	14 (46)	4 (2)	0 (8)
Scotland	54 (39)	18 (16)	1 (6)
Ireland	20 (34)	6 (18)	0 (4)
Channel Islands	0 (0)	0 (0)	0 (0)
Total	161 (222)	82 (53)	1 (35)
(The figures in parentheses are those for 2021)

Four new taxa were added to the British and Irish moss flora, including Tortula bolanderi from Norfolk and Leucobryum albidum , a species previously overlooked as variation within our other two Leucobryum species. Research into those species also demonstrated that the differences between them were not well understood. They will now be taken forward as L. glaucum s.str., which remains the most likely large species of open habitats, and L. juniperoideum s.str., a scarce species of ravines and other sheltered western places. Most of what was formerly recorded as L. juniperoideum in woodland is likely to be L. albidum .

It was a successful and prolific recording year in Scotland with some superb discoveries. Dicranum elongatum , on Skye is the first new record of this rarity in many years. Other Scottish highlights include new populations of Andreaea sinuosa , Cynodontium strumiferum , Philonotis rigida and Grimmia elongata . Fewer vouchers were received from Ireland than in 2021, but nonetheless there were some exceptionally good finds, especially in Northern Ireland, which is normally more poorly recorded than the Republican vice-counties. Grimmia longirostris , G. muehlenbeckii and Bryoerythrophyllum campylocarpum (the latter also found for the first time this year in mainland Scotland and England) were all very significant new records. Numbers were also down in Wales. Among the best finds there were Grimmia elongata in Pembrokeshire, Ephemerum cohaerens , Micromitrium tenerum , and Aloina brevirostris , the latter new to Wales. English highlights include a significant SW extension of range for the rare Tomentypnum nitens onto Exmoor. Bryologists taking advantage of exceptionally low water levels in the autumn to search reservoir sediment for inundation zone specialists reported populations of Physcomitrium readeri as far apart as Sussex and Cornwall. Climate change means that we see this little moss more frequently in future.

Sharon Pilkington, March 2023

Recording Secretary’s Report

Post- Census Catalogue , it is perhaps fitting that BRC were able to appoint a new botanical assistant in 2022, permitting us to make much faster progress across numerous BBS-related tasks. Sam Amy joined the Biological Records Centre in spring 2022, after previously having worked for UKCEH as a field ecologist. Sam has rapidly got to grips with numerous arcane topics, and has led on the following initiatives: completing the updates required to bring both the BBS database and the UK Species Inventory (UKSI) in line with the new BBS checklist; performing, and updating, numerous MS Access-based quality checks on incoming data; processing most data (around 46 sets comprising

almost 100,000 records) and amendments received post- Census Catalogue ; and leading on the recent Field Bryology post- Atlas database summary. On the back of all this hard work, we were able to distribute updated vice-county datasets to all Regional Recorders in November 2022.

Sam has of course also assisted with numerous other data enquiries this past year, including around 40 direct requests for the Society’s raw data or summaries. These requests supported individual recorders, bryological consultants, and the planning of BBS field meetings, among other things. As usual, the number of direct requests to the Recording Secretary does not capture the numerous downloads of BBS data from the NBN or GBIF. Members should recall that BBS data are hosted on the NBN under a Creative Commons ‘attribution only’ licence (CC-BY). This means that they can be downloaded and used for any purpose, even if that purpose is commercial, as long as the BBS source is recognised. (This was decided upon by the former BBS Conservation & Recording Committee in 2015, and even then essentially only re-codified a pre-existing licensing statement established by my predecessor, Dr Mark O. Hill, some years before).

The UKSI updates mentioned above should enable BBS data to be displayed more accurately on the NBN, but they also support governmental processes such as Red Listing, and underlie the popular iRecord platform (meaning that recorders could now utilise the iRecord phone app for field recording). Related to this, bryophyte recorders using iRecord submitted around 13,400 records in 2022, indicating a rich source of data and local enthusiasm that may not have been exploited in some vice-counties or regions. Sam and I intend to summarise this resource in a Field Bryology article in 2023.

Three new Regional Recorders were appointed in 2022: Jonathan Sleath replaced Fred Rumsey in v.c. 12 (North Hants.); Agneta Burton and Astrid Biddle took on v.c. 20 (Herts.) as a double-act, a vice-county that has lacked a recorder since Chris Tipper stepped down in 2014; and Clare Shaw took on v.c. 60 (W. Lancs.), vacant since 2016 (previously Des Callaghan). Two other Regional Recorders retired in 2022 leaving as yet unfilled vacancies. These were Jan Hendey (v.cc. 15–16: 2008–2022) and Tom Ottley (v.cc. 13–14: 2012–2016; v.c. 46: 2017–2022). On behalf of the BBS, I thank the new Recorders for taking on their duties, and all the previous Recorders for their dedication and hard work. Regional Recorder details for each vice-county can be viewed under the relevant vice-county - - page on the BBS website (see https://www.britishbryologicalsociety.org.uk/recording/vice county maps). (Note that I also keep a spreadsheet-based record of all appointments.)

As readers will have already realised from the above, this year I have been indebted to Sam Amy for her tireless work across numerous, at times detailed and painful, tasks at BRC. Thanks again to other staff at BRC, including Steph Rorke for database updates and Martin Harvey for support with iRecord-related issues; thanks also to Claire Halpin on the BBS side for website updates.

Dr Oliver L. Pescott, February 2023

40LOG/ YE4* 24