Weather bomb approaching 😯

Farewell to Deeside, great showing of Creeping Ladies Tresses, my favourite of that genus 🙂 @ukorchids.bsky.social

Inspired by @trisnorton.bsky.social I snapped a rush today, a common one I think J conglomeratus, alingside a striking group of Marsh Woundwort 🙂

Nice to see some interesting flowers while searching out those elusive Orchids, Large Hemp Nettle, Deeside.

Worth the long trip to the Western Isles and with a bit of luck on timing here we have the lovely Irish Ladies Tresses @ukorchids.bsky.social 🙂

Up close with the Lesser Bladderwort a quite amazing plant 🙂

Median wasp checking out my beloved Epipactis Leptochila 😊 @ukorchids.bsky.social

Delighted to find the lovely, but deadly, Henbane recently, a chalk downland specialist, approach with caution 😱

I'm giving a Zoom talk for Cambridge Beekeepers' Association on Wednesday 2nd July - with a focus on the fascinating world of #SolitaryBees. Do please sign up if you are interested, and share the link if you would! 🐝 🌼 🙏 #bees #bumblebees #pollinators www.tickettailor.com/events/cambr...

Hurray the Surrey Bees are out 🙂 @ukorchids.bsky.social

I have a soft spot for the Butterfly Orchid as it was the first to spark a lifelong obsession, so always pleased to see the first flower of the year 🙂 @ukorchids.bsky.social

Inspired by recent posts I went in search of a Surrey Meadow Saxifrage and found a great presence at a local churchyard, clearly very proud of their flora 🙂

Plenty of these lovely Early Mining Bees - Andrena haemorrhoa, flying now, distinctive orange tails so even I can identify them 😂 @StevenFalk1 @B_Strawbridge

Some lovely dwarf Green Winged Orchids flowering over the Sussex Downs amongst the short turf and very fragrant downland herbs 🙂 @ukorchids.bsky.social

Check out your local churchyards, and if they've been well managed they'll look a bit scruffy but will host treasures like the lovely Green Winged Orchid, Sussex. @ukorchids

Surrey's orchid season is up and running 🙂 @ukorchids.bsky.social

Partial solar eclipse, with my makeshift pinhole papers 😂

Good showing of dog violets this spring 🙂

Went out looking for Anthophora plumipes, and found some 😀 but the little devils were so flighty, anyway caught their hairy legs on this photo, feeding on a white Violet.

Green-winged Orchid (Anacamptis morio). In the UK it flowers in April and May. Base colour and markings are highly variable - but always with the distinctive green veins in the 'wings'. Normally seen as single flower spikes, it can also form small clumps. Here are some of my favourite 'flavours'.

Some lovely velvety shanks enjoying the cold weather ❄️

What do you get when you cross one orchid taxa with another in subtribe Orchidinae? Increased seed quality and germination performance! Find out more in this months #EditorsChoice article 🌍🧪🌿👇 academic.oup.com/botlinnean/a... @linneansociety.bsky.social

Some interesting "hair ice" seen this morning, this is actually a fungus, Exidiopsis effusa 🙂

Here’s hoping we get another show before the end of this amazing year for the auroras, taken back in October, Surrey.

Webcap season is pretty much over so in celebration of a good year a lovely Violet.

Rare to find a Stinkhorn in its prime, but couldn’t resist a photo, despite the awful smell 🤪

Great year for waxcaps, one of my favourites Scarlet waxcap.

Jewelled Amenita, a favourite of mine 🙂