Nature’s potential is often hidden in plain sight and at SeaSpace, that potential is starting to bloom. Through our partnership with this vibrant coastal hub in Cornwall, we’re using Floradex to uncover the wildflower diversity already thriving on site and reveal the even greater ecological opportunities ahead…

Rewilding with Purpose: Why Wildflowers Matter

Wildflowers are the beating heart of healthy ecosystems. They provide year-round forage for pollinators such as bees, butterflies, moths, and hoverflies, whilst supporting thousands of other insect species that underpin wider food webs. By enhancing wildflower diversity, we don’t just brighten landscapes; we build resilience, ecological connectivity, and natural carbon storage.

As part of our mission to deliver science-led, nature-based solutions for pollinator recovery, Pollenize has been conducting biodiversity surveys and bioblitzes across universities, schools, farms, parks, nature reserves, and hotels. These surveys help us track ecological change, quantify impact, and guide potential biodiversity improvements.

Recently, we partnered with SeaSpace, a coastal aparthotel and community-led space near Newquay, Cornwall, to understand, celebrate, and enhance the site’s wildflower and insect life.

Bioblitzing for Biodiversity: Citizen Science in Action

Over a series of seasonal surveys, our team and SeaSpace staff recorded 78 distinct plant species, 12 pollinator species, and 8 other insect species at the site using the iNaturalist app. The project can be viewed here:iNaturalist project. These data points offer a real-time snapshot of the site’s biodiversity, capturing which plants and pollinators are active and where there’s potential for growth.

Citizen science is central to this process. Regular monitoring helps track floral succession through the seasons, spot emerging habitats, and refine planting plans over time. Every new observation, whether a bee on knapweed or a hoverfly on buttercup, adds to a growing dataset that fuels our ability to prescribe a planting solution to increase biodiversity.

Turning Data into Action: How Floradex Powers Planting Prescriptions

Once collected, the SeaSpace biodiversity data was uploaded to our software, Floradex, Pollenize’s biodiversity analysis tool. Floradex cross-references site-specific plant records against national biodiversity databases, including the Plant-Pollinator Interaction Database and the Database of Insects and their Food Plants (DBIF, covering over 60,000 known insect–plant interactions across Great Britain.

This allows us to identify planting gaps and prescribe a site-specific planting solution.

At SeaSpace, Floradex analysis revealed an exciting potential uplift of 2,659 new species interactions. By introducing a mix of wildflowers, shrubs, and trees such as common knapweed, osier willow, and crab apple, the site could dramatically increase its ecological value and habitat richness. In our reports, we can give a soil tendency confidence score: by matching species to the site’s soil profile, we increase the likelihood of successful establishment and long-term persistence, creating a richer, more resilient habitat.

The Widget: Making Biodiversity Visible

Biodiversity shouldn’t stay hidden in spreadsheets; it should be visible, interactive, and inspiring. That’s where the Biodiversity Widget comes in. This dashboard has been embedded through some easy steps to communicate some key information about the SeaSpace site.

The Widget Highlights:

Potential pollinator species that could be observed: What does this mean? The total potential number of pollinators and insects your existing plants could support, based on national records

Percentage of plant support score for pollinators: What does this mean? This shows the average percentage of plants each pollinator can access at this site, indicating how well supported individual pollinator species are.

By surfacing this information publicly, the widget turns biodiversity into a tangible story, one that teams, visitors, and the wider community can engage with and learn from.

The widget updates automatically with live data from ongoing surveys, enabling visitors to see a visual change after each observation is uploaded.

What Next?

With a tailored planting plan and monitoring framework in place, SeaSpace is well on its way to further boosting biodiversity and creating lasting ecological impact. By combining local observation, citizen science, and innovative analytics, this partnership demonstrates what’s possible when data and design work hand-in-hand for nature.

To explore how the Biodiversity Programmes can help your organisation measure and amplify ecological value, get in touch at hello@pollenize.org.uk or visit pollenize.org.uk.