Community and continuity: non-hierarchical recording of Cambridgeshire's plants and fungi, 1919–1952

The question of how to accurately capture and communicate information on the natural world sits at the heart of natural history, whose objects of study are often ephemeral. We present a case-study of three contemporaneous attempts at using loose-leaf files and card indexes – focused on bryophytes, vascular plants and fungi – to capture records in Cambridgeshire during the mid-twentieth century. Compared to personal records or curated herbaria and fungaria, these documents demonstrate a participatory collaboration, drawing on an overlapping pool of individuals. This was non-hierarchical in at least two of the three cases, as anyone with access was able to contribute records directly and without oversight. We reconstruct the temporal and geographical patterns of recording of the three taxonomic groups and consider the very different extents to which they succeeded in their aims. We also explore how these minor local exercises had major implications for the history of British botany.