A reminder: There is no analogy in the fossil record for the magnitude & scale of the modern bioinvasion event. Driven by human activities, species are moving faster, farther, and in greater numbers than at any time in the history of life.

There's probably a clever way to share X posts on Bluesky, but I don't know what that is... So, in the meantime, here's the sellotape and sticky-back plastic version. So lovely to see this from Book Brunch.

I'm just now finding "It's Nice to be Disliked (by One of Those)" by @brittlestar.com, and it's the perfect theme song for the Gestapo-bothering videos from DC that I'm now obsessed with.

From a biodiversity perspective, the Greenwich Peninsula development in London is one of the most god-awful pits of cynical greenwashing I’ve ever encountered. Not so long ago, there were wild rabbits here.

You’ve seen them on walls, trees & paths—but do you know their names? 🌱 On 6 Jan, @ryanclarkecology.bsky.social will teach you to identify mosses & explore their hidden beauty. £12.50 online, recording included www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/1556777967...

One of drought effects in arable England is that clay soils crack like this all over crop fields, with fissures up to 40 cm deep. These are death traps for farmland birds: any young Grey Partridges, fledgling Skylarks, Yellow Wagtails or Corn Buntings that fall down these aren’t getting out again.

If you have a BBQ visitor this wknd, don’t flap and shout. Instead, give a wasp-offering: sausage..pie.. whatever she wants. She’s looking for protein not sugar atm as the colony is growing fast with many brood to feed. Wasps are pest controllers, pollinators- Live with not against them. #WaspLove

Another result of consequence free landscape level planting of non-natives all over the public realm without care or thought - Eryngium pandanifolium, a large & potentially invasive umbellifer from South America seen on the canal side in Kings X central London.

These #BotanicalSkills events are a great way to pick up #WildFlowerID tips from the experts! 2 more #NorthernIreland events coming up, this time at Castle Coole, Fermanagh. 5 July: grasses of neutral habitats 11 July: sedges of limestone wetlands Details & booking links: bsbi.org/botanical-sk...

I'll be leading a foray at the All Things Fungi Festival this September. I've been both previous years, and it's been a great fun, a fantastic event for fungi nerds www.allthingsfungi.co.uk

The government’s new Planning and Infrastructure Bill looks like being an environmental disaster. Hence signing this petition seems worth 30 seconds of your life foe.uk/tffac

Our latest research shows spot-on flea treatments on dogs are released into water when dogs swim even 28 days after treatment - in contrast to the label which suggests dogs can safely swim 48 h after treatment. www.newscientist.com/article/2482...

Clustered Clover Trifolium glomeratum (top and right), and Knotted Clover T. striatum. Note difference in leaflet shape (glomeratum rounded, striatum pointed) and presence of hairs (glomeratum wholly glabrous, striatum very hairy). Growing at home to facilitate close study. @bsbibotany.bsky.social

Well that’s odd, Gaudinia fragilis, French Oat-grass, growing on my balcony in central London - no idea from where, probably my socks. @bsbibotany.bsky.social - prob. gradually spreading in S. England: plantatlas2020.org/atlas/2cd4p9...

It’s the #ChelseaFlowerShow2025 this week so why don’t we have a #WildFlowerShow for #WildflowerHour? Find wildflowers or combinations of several wildflower species looking absolutely spectacular & share your pics this Sunday 8-9pm! I wonder, if there will be a best-in-show?😉🏆

Surveying a fine series of ancient woodland and associated habitat on the IOW for the Wildlife Trust. @wildflowerhour.bsky.social records remnant pop. of Ragged Robin & the native form of Common Vetch.

Harmful algal blooms are preceded by a predictable and quantifiable shift in the oceanic microbiome www.nature.com/articles/s41... #jcampubs 🌊

Disappointed I couldn’t make this years #UKDNAWG25 @ukdnawg.bsky.social meeting. Good to see the forensic application of eDNA in criminal investigations being discussed. But, nationally, progress is glacial - the @ukhomeoffice.bsky.social & other depts really need to take action to support this.

On my way to a forensics conference today in Birmingham and I managed a bit of urban botany - Little Robin (Geranium purpureum), prob new to (no DDb records) the city, in two different locations. Another Mediterranean species rapidly moving north. @bsbiengland.bsky.social @bsbibotany.bsky.social

Really important that MPs hear from trans legal experts about what the Supreme Court ruling actually means for trans people, not what the papers are reporting. Ask yours to attend 👇

This now means there are two populations of this, probably highly threatened, plant in Greater London. This one is at risk from development and tree planting, the other is currently secure on Staines Moor. Superb, thorough research and fieldwork by @astridbiddle.bsky.social

What happens belowground when a mountain road cuts through nature? After epic fieldwork, root sequencing & modeling marathons, we found: roads unravel fungal interaction networks—fewer links and more generalists. @dajana-r.bsky.social 📖 Blog: the3dlab.org/2025/05/08/w...

Putative Bevan’s Bittercress (Cardamine x fringsii), a scarce hybrid between pratensis & flexuosa; found at Bentley Priory during the recent LNHS/BSBI field meeting. @wildflowerhour.bsky.social #wildflowerhour

Spring tidy up in the garden today on a rather cool & damp day in Ryde. Also found a Blackbird’s nest in the huge Podranea ricasoliana, which I’ll now have to delay pruning.

Bee Hotels: do they work? How to get the best from them? Join me to hear the results of @The_Buzz_Club 's Big Bee Hotel Experiment, online, tuesday 1pm, free but please book a place! www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/improving-...?

Please share widely; a list of all the protests against the removal of trans people’s human rights this weekend from @whatthetrans.com Protest is survival. We will need to do this repeatedly, refuse to comply in advance.

Queer folk have fought against a bigoted legal system for decades. We will continue to do so. Trans women are women and the Supreme Court’s ruling is hate-speech - and without any basis in scientific evidence or the lives of trans folk.

A few people have been asking about FISCs in Norfolk this year. I’ll be running one 12 August 2025 in Norwich with @jo-the-botanist.bsky.social & @naturalengland.bsky.social Look out for a booking link on the @bsbibotany.bsky.social website in the next few weeks

Planning to buy plants over #Easter? Check out the #PeatFree Nurseries List for over 140 #UK growers who don't destroy precious carbon-capturing #peatland habitat by using #peat to grow their plants. Pls let me know if your favourite #nursery isn't listed. Pls repost & let your friends know. Ta 🙏🌱💚

430.06 parts per million (ppm) CO2 in air 12-Apr-2025 keelingcurve.ucsd.edu

Greetings from the historic Judson Memorial Church in NYC, where we are here to memorialize trailblazing AIDS doctor Joseph Sonnabend, MD (1933-2021). In attendance is a Who’s Who of global AIDS activists, many who were “Joe’s” patients.

Tree scientists at the Government’s Forest Research agency have used the latest technology in laser detection & satellite imagery to map non-woodland trees in England for the first time. The map goes live today & can be used to track tree loss, target planting & help us reach 16.5% tree coverage.

427.26 parts per million (ppm) CO2 in air 01-Apr-2025 keelingcurve.ucsd.edu

One of our neighbour’s cats has taken up residence in our bathroom sink.

Absolutely. And the rest of us lesser mortals should give it a wide berth.

We have 3 fab #WildFlowerID webinars lined up for you this spring. Led by national experts. All absolutely free! 22 Apr: Mulleins with Mike Crewe 7 May: Mints with Ambroise Baker 10 June: Broomrapes with @christhorogood.bsky.social Details & booking links: bsbipublicity.blogspot.com/2025/03/shar...

London’s last, but thriving, wild daffodils, Narcissus pseudonarcissus subsp. pseudonarcissus in Lesnes Abbey Wood #wildflowerhour

London’s last, but thriving, wild daffodils, Narcissus pseudonarcissus subsp. pseudonarcissus in Lesnes Abbey Wood #wildflowerhour

The fabulous and somewhat ungainly Iris wattii in my garden today.

Despite what we like to tell ourselves, habitat creation only goes so far (albeit within decadal time frames). It’s vital that we protect the tiny remnants of ancient grassland that remain.

The ‘should we kill millions of birds to make ourselves feel better’ debate. If this was trapping for Ambelopoulia there’d be uproar.

Are you a farmer, or working with farmers, in the UK or Ireland? Take part in this survey on parasitic weeds in Europe! Natural Resources institute (NRI), @adasgroup.bsky.social @w-u-r.bsky.social agricology.co.uk/parasitic-we...

This what being ‘gender-critical’ gets you. Pseudo-polite words hiding hate enable more hate. To all the transphobes in Britain (& elsewhere), the blood of queer folk is on your hands. LGBTQIA stand together.

Today is the day for the One Man Conference: Discovering Ancient Houses. Last minute bookings are very much welcomed and can be made right up until 9pm. Looking forward to it! www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/one-man-co...

The MAGA loons who love their potato based staples & snacks are going to flip when the price sky-rockets - successful mass production of potato crops is deeply dependent upon climate data. On the other hand Phytophthora infestans is going to be in clover (& potatoes).

Hoylake’s foreshore, an SAC, holds 2% of the UK’s young sand dunes. Yet, Natural England approved 1.5ha of clearance, endangering globally rare wildlife. I’ve instructed Freeths to challenge this & am raising £1,900 in legal fees. Any support helps! 🌱❤️ gofund.me/2669579c

Now over 900 signatures. Please keep signing and sharing to send a clear message to the Royal Society that we want them to stand up for values that we all hold dear: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

I interpret ‘long day’ to mean ‘soul destroying’ judging by the levels of environmental brutalisation. ‘Guardianship’ as a metaphor of exploitation and destruction.