You will find copies in second-hand book shops if you are fortunate. Used copies are also available online.
This is an essential addition to any departmental library for those teaching the new specification because of its focus.
It is a remarkable piece of work by Richard Mabey, supported by Common Ground (see blogpost about this organisation).
It covers the natural and naturalised plants of England, Scotland and Wales.
It is a cultural book rather than a purely botanical ID guide. It looks at the role of wild plants in social life, arts, custom and landscape. These are all areas which are going to be in the draft specification I would imagine, and so this could be said to be one of the key sources for information and details on a range of areas for the new specification.
Also check out his rather smaller book: 'A Good Parcel of English Soil' on his childhood in what is now called Metroland and how nature reclaimed areas which people had left alone.
There are sections on a whole range of plants and trees, including vernacular names and specific locations.
Weeds are included, as well as plants close to the sea, fruit and familiar plants, plants on common land, and plants in watery locations.
If one of the purposes of the new specification is for young people to know more about the plants they see in hedgerows and gardens on the way to school, this is going to be valuable.
If we take one example of a plant: the stinging nettle. We can learn a lot from the entry in the book for this plant.
Growing up in the 1960s and 70s in Yorkshire, with woods and common on the doorstep we were very familiar with this plant. It tends to grow close to human settlement and prefers woodland glades or river banks. It likes soils rich in phosphate, which tend to be those where domesticated animals have grazed and manured, or through burning, dumping of refuse or in graveyards. Straight away reading this we can see some human-nature relationships e.g. they are found in ruined crofts in Scotland despite the occupants leaving hundreds of years ago, and also on the sites of Romano-British villages.
The nettle family is called Urticaceae.
Its vernacular names including Devil's plaything, Hokey-pokey and Jinny nettle.
It causes a rash if touched (urticaria) and has given its name to a whole range of places including Nettlecombe in Dorset, for example, home to a Field Studies Council centre.
This gave me an idea straight away of using the gazetteer in Digimap for Schools to find which plants/trees/animals have the most places named after them, or which include the plant/tree/animal in their name.
They are a source / ingredient for food and ale, and were used as a subsistence food during the Irish Potato Famine, and the Second World War.
There are nettle eating competitions (don't try that at school) and some use the stings to ward off inflammation, and also restore circulation. They are also used to make fibres, and military clothing has previously been made from the thread. They can also be used to make a dye.
Image: Book cover - Alan Parkinson, shared under CC license
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