Visual Records

Speckled wood, Mottistone Down (MC)

Contact the Visual Records manager.

Scan of Poa infirma, variants with pale & dark lemmas © GT

Those who have contributed here –
Acknowledgements

The story so far…

The Group was begun in 2005 and its aims are to document all the various interests and activities of the Society as a whole. We take photos of plants and animals, group meetings, people and places and most of this website is illustrated by the work of our members. We keep a computer archive and have begun the task of scanning important historical pictures, illustrations and, for instance, portraits of Island naturalists from the past.

Current work

You don’t need expertise or equipment, anyone with an interest can join us and we are happy to help those who need to illustrate talks, slideshows and publications for the Society. We welcome the involvement of people with other group-interests, to help by showing us subjects we should photograph and by telling us what it is we are pointing a lens at!

Meetings

Currently we have no regular meetings, though there are occasional ad hoc ones. Our members are involved with all aspects of the Society and aim to document the exciting new projects with which it is involved.

Progress

Hare’s Foot Clover (Trifolium arvense) leaf + stipule (where it meets the stem – a diagnostic feature) © GT

Our records cover all aspects of the Society’s activities but, of course, most of our photos are either of meetings, archaeological artifacts, fossils or of living things. Recent work has been the scanning of plants which are difficult to photograph in the wild. A specimen, typically a grass or sedge, is taken and scanned as a whole and in parts. The high-resolution images can then go on file next to the natural views taken in the wild. This is very helpful with difficult identifications and can even enable a National expert to give something a name from images received electronically.

Species which are rare or special to the Island have been an early priority which means that many of the common plants and animals still await our attention.