20.04.2023 - Indoor meeting : One Man, One Year, One Thousand Plants

​Speaker: Mike Dilger
Reporter: Sue Gale

Mike Dilger is known to many of us through his 18years of wildlife films seen on the One Show. His aim over the years has been to reach a wide audience and to convert them to an interest in wildlife, and he has covered all sorts of topics and species. The Covid restrictions were a mixed blessing for a free-lance worker like Mike, making income uncertain but giving him time at home with family and time to visit the nearby Chew Valley Lakes. One thing he became aware of was what he called ‘plant blindness’, both his own and that of other naturalists.
People often just don’t notice plants. So, he decided to have a big botanical year in 2021, in which he would try to see 1000 species of plant. This required a lot of research, into habitats and the species he might expect to find, and a lot of journey planning. Mike saw the 1000 plants, and he estimates that about 500 of them were close to his home in the Mendips. The resultant book was called ‘1000 Shades of Green’, plus 12 Plants to Die For.

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