Where to Photograph Wild Plants in the UK

There are very many places where you can photograph wild plants, and we have split the tables of these into a number of sections, and will add more overtime.

Guide to Common Wild Flowers

Places to Photograph Plants by county

Alpha List of Places to Photograph Plants

Specialist pages for Certain Plant Types

Snowdrops

Daffodils

Bluebells

Where to Photograph Bluebells in England

Where to Photograph Bluebells in Scotland

Where to Photograph Bluebells in Wales

Where to Photograph Bluebells in Northern Ireland

Also consider any of the places listed under where you can see birds as many of these places have large numbers of wild plants and although that is not their major function often wild plants do thrive and can be seen.

Other Reference Listings  which may be of interest are:

UK National Parks

Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty

Other Resources

Other resources that you may find of interest.

National Nature Reserves. (NNR) As at 2012 there are 224 reserves throughout England, plus on Marine Nature Reserve on Lundy. This link takes you to a page on the Natural England website where you can find one near you and its details including how to get there. Our 'Places to Photograph Plants' listings contain the 35 Spotlight Reserves throughout England, together with others, which generally give the best opportunity of seeing something and in most cases there are Car Parks and Visitor Centres on site to give some facilities.

Local Nature Reserves. English Nature also run a database of Local Nature Reserves (LNR). These are places with wildlife, flora or geological features that are of special interest locally.  They are in the process of updating their database and this is likely to grow. Using this link will take you to their search page where you can select your county on an interactive map to get a list of these that are in your area. Do take care to read the details and look at the maps on the site you are interested in before making your journey as it would appear some of these areas are small and that there have been grants available that have allowed local small groups or councils to designate areas in their district and in a lot of cases it may only be a ditch. On their main search page it states that there should be at least 1 hectare of LNR per 1000 population to qualify as a LNR. There is also a very large Excel file you can download until the full database is complete.

Site of Special Scientific Interest. There are over 4000 sites within England. Over half of them are internationally important for their wildlife, flora and geological status. Many are Nature Reserves as well as some of England's most spectacular habitats such as large wetlands, winding chalk rivers, gorse and heather- clad heathlands, flower-rich meadows, shingle beaches and remote uplands, moorland and peat bogs.

Special Areas of Conservation have been given special protection under the European Habitats Directive. These sites are part of measures aimed at conserving important and threatened habitats and species. They include such places as Chesil Beach in Dorset, Dungeness in Kent, Richmond Park in London and lots more. Linking to this page will give you a better understanding of how the areas are chosen as well as access to a current list of sites.

Postcode Plant Database - key in your postcode and find out which flora/fauna you can find in your local area. This is a database runs by the Natural History Museum and allows you to generate local lists of UK plants and for a postcode. It will not tell you where you can see them within that locality but does give a brief description and in a lot of cases pictures of what they look like.