About ukwildflowers.com

This site came about because of two changes to technology which happened at about the same time: digital cameras and broadband internet in the UK.

Before broadband connections became commonplace in the United Kingdom, we struggled along with 56 kbps dial-up which worked reasonably well for simple Internet applications like email messages without attachments. Looking for wild flower photos on the internet was a slow process and unsatisfactory because photos which were large enough to be useful downloaded very slowly. More usually those which did appear quickly on screen were small and lacked detail.

As soon as 512 kbps broadband was rolled out to most UK exchanges, browsing larger more detailed photos became a possibility. The digital camera revolution was also a blessing to talentless photographers like myself who had tried and utterly failed with film and slide. The digital camera allows us to look at the photo we've just taken and even to magnify it to see if the focus is good enough.

The digital format of the output from such cameras suggested that a collection of wild flower photos could be shared by creating a web site dedicated to showing and sharing the fascinating flora of these islands with whoever was interested. The original aim was to show large photos of rare plants but there seemed no reason to leave out the other photos of other wild plants which were accumulating in the photo library. So from an idea for ukrareflowers.com the site was actually registered as ukwildflowers.com

At first only wild flower photos were shown on ukwildflowers.com but anyone enjoying a trip into the countryside would be likely to encounter butterflies, moths, birds and so on. Photos of a few birds, fungi, scenery and creatures of the countryside are included but the main emphasis is on wild flowers.

Apologies to any Irish women and men who browse this site about the use of the collective geographical term "British Isles" because The Republic of Ireland certainly isn't British. Alternative names such as "The North West European Archipelago" are definitely a more modern and accurate description of the physical geography of these islands off the European mainland with no political overtones. The trouble is very few people know what you're talking about if you say "North Western European Archipelago" but the whereabouts of the British Isles is well known.

European and Australian wild flowers are also included. Because the flora in both places is so much richer in those regions than locally in Britain and Ireland, I expect the additions, particularly to the European section, to be of a similar order to those on the British section of the ukwildflowers site if not greater in the near future.

In theory the Australian section could be the largest perhaps as there are 12,000 species already catalogued by the Western Australian Herbarium and more are discovered and added every year. The photos here come from only four trips to Australia which included short vists to Tasmania and eastern Australia.

Don't be surprised to find flowers from more distant countries if I ever get there - and can identify them of course. I've already got one from the deserts near Dubai!

Added on 8th February 2007, amended 26th Octover 2007, updated 3rd April 2016, 22nd sept 2017, 21st Ausgust 2018