The aim of the Day of Wild Flowers is to introduce the local flora, promote botanical leisure activities and offer common nature experiences free of charge to all interested in plants.

The tradition of free public field excursions was started by the Danish Botanical Society in 1988. In Sweden, Norway and Faroe Islands excursions on the same principle have been arranged since 2002, in Finland since 2003 and in Iceland since 2004. The excursions are held on the same day in all Nordic countries, in 2007 on June 17th. In 2008 the day will be on June 15th.

The excursions have been extremely popular. During recent years about 10 000 people have taken part in about 500 excursions all over the Nordic Countries. The number of participants per excursion varies from a few to over a hundred. During the excursions, the most common local early summer species are introduced and identification of species is studied together. Local and current topics are discussed with participants, for example the ecological demands of the species and issues on plant conservation. Some material is sent in advance for the guides and some is also distributed to the participants, such as lists of the most common vascular plants.

These events have given an opportunity to pose some national issues on plants and flora. In Finland the information of some declined species has been gathered. For instance, the knowledge of the distribution of a vulnerable esker plant, Pulsatilla vernalis, was greatly improved in 2006, when the species was described in the media. In 2007 observations of declined Thymus serpyllum were collected in the Species Gateway, national reporting system maintained by The Finnish Museum of Natural History.

The Nordic Day of Wild Flowers is an example of local, national and Nordic cooperation between several actors, including botanical and nature conservation societies, nature conservation authorities, botanical museums, educational organizations, local governments and local people. The activities support the European and global tasks for raising public awareness and building the capacity for plant conservation.

The Nordic Council of Ministers finances the Nordic Day of Wild Flowers in 2007. In the 5th Planta Europa conference in Romania September 5th-9th a poster (.pdf) was presented (Kalliovirta, Kemppainen, Hammer & Nepper Larsen 2007: The Nordic Day of Wild Flowers).

• The Day of Wild Flowers in Finland 2007
  

Contact information:

• Denmark: Danish Botanical Society
  
• Faroe Islands: The Faroese Museum of Natural History
  
• Finland: The Finnish Association for Nature Conservation
• Iceland: The Icelandic amateur botanist group, Flóruvinir
• Norway: Norwegian Botanical Association
• Sweden: Swedish Botanical Society
• The Planta Europa network