#WildflowerHour Every year, in the woods by the brook, this little Wild Garlic plant comes up in a hole in the horizontally leaning trunk of a Small Leaved Lime tree:

Thyme-leaved Speedwell, Veronica serpyllifolia growing alongside Ficaria verna & Cardamine pratensis in a silage field, showing that even slightly less intensive management can, in the right circumstances, add some ecological interest. It's a cracking plant. #WildflowerHour

The lovely Three-nerved Sandwort, Moehringia trinervia. #WildflowerHour

Fingered Sedge, Carex digitata - nice to find a new site for it. In a woodland glade right next to a mature stand of Yew (and also nearby on open limestone pavement). Holding on impressively in shaded areas, for now at least. #WildflowerHour #Sedges #WoodlandPlants

Meadow, Creeping, Bulbous, Goldilocks, Celery-leaved? Do you know your buttercups? That is the challenge this week from Wild Flower Hour! Post your pics for #Wildflowerhour this Sunday 8-9pm using the hashtag #buttercupchallenge!

Shepherd's Needle, Scandix pecten-veneris, beside the England Coast Path at Roedean. Spot the photo bombing Bulbous Buttercup, which was desperate to take part in the #ButtercupChallenge. Early for #WildflowerHour

If only Bluesky had smell-o-vision, then you could all experience the delicious scent of warm honey comining from the flowers of this Sea Kale, Crambe maritima, in the glorious sunshine at Samphire Hoe yesterday. 🍯 Early for #WildflowerHour.

In Cumbrian dialects, may-flower is hawthorn. Hang hawthorn blossom outside the house at Beltane to welcome the ancestors Roy Vickery describes hawthorn as: "associated with unregulated love in the fields, rather than conjugal love in the bed" more: "Folklore of the Lake District" #bookwormsat

Norway sold 12 petrol cars in February 2026. Out of 7,272 new passenger car registrations, 98% were fully electric. Just 67 diesel & 12 petrol cars were registered. Hybrids? Only 66 in total mostly plug ins. More in my new Substack newsletter coming out every 7 days. Sign up here: t.co/In5lBaF2ox

Waving, not drowning... Fascinating to read about the only Fiddler Crab species in Europe, Afruca tangeri, after seeing tens of thousands in Ria Formosa wetlands, Portugal, last week. Males wave their major claw not just to attract females but also to thermoregulate; the action dissipates heat.

Little Mouse-ear, Cerastium semidecandrum & Sea Mouse-ear, C. diffusum #WildflowerHour at #Ainsdale #NNR & #Birkdale Green Beach, on the Sefton Coast. Cracking species both.

I take every opportunity I can to show people this subspecies of Groundsel (subsp denticulatus) 💚 Underwhelmed is the more than typical response. Here at Birkdale Green Beach on the Sefton Coast. It is only found on west coast dune systems. #WildflowerHour

One of the very loveliest of Britain's native #wildflowers Spring Vetch, Vicia lathyroides. A great indicator of high-quality dune grassland, open heaths etc. Sadly in decline due to the many pressures on these habitats. #WildflowerHour #Ainsdale #NNR #Dunes #Grasslands

Very little scope for botanising this week due to the small matter of moving house. So just this lovely Thale Cress for this week's #WildflowerHour #CabbageFamily

Just seen, and immediately signed this one: petition.parliament.uk/petitions/75...

Is there a more exquisite woodland plant than Moschatel? I'm not sure there is. It's a species I don't see all that often and so it was a nice bonus to see such swathes of it at #RSPB Mersehead #WildflowerHour #WoodlandPlants #Moschatel #Mersehead @rspbscotland.bsky.social

Fingered Sedge, Carex digitata. A plant of limestone woodlands and other limestone habitats. Already in profusion at Gait Barrows NNR, Lancashire. #WildflowerHour #WoodlandPlants

Goat #Willow, Salix caprea. A week late for the #WildflowerHour #TreeFlowers challenge (and appropriately therefore late for #WildflowerHour too)

Common Cotton-grass, Eriophorum vaginatum. Just starting to come in to flower on Barclye Moor, Wood of Cree. #WildflowerHour #RSPB @rspbscotland.bsky.social

We're just coming in to peak Saxifraga tridactylites season now. Late for #WildflowerHour #Arnside railway embankment & Helsington Barrows #Cumbria

Hardly a tree but I'm counting it for the #TreeFlowers challenge nonetheless. Broom, Cytisus scoparius. #WildflowerHour at #RSPB Old Moor Nature Reserve. #Spring

Thale Cress is a fascinating species. Much studied genetically due to the combination of a small genone and short lifecycle. It has certainly gone from seedling to fruit stage very quickly this year. Here growing in the car park of #Westmorland General Hospital #Kendal #WildflowerHour

A lovely display of Colt's-foot, Tussilago farfara at #RSPB Old Moor this week. #WildflowerHour in the Dearne Valley, South #Yorkshire

A magnificent spring show at RSPB Old Moor Nature Reserve, Blackthorn & Gorse. #WildflowerHour #TreeFlowers #Spring #RSPB #OldMoor @rspbengland.bsky.social

I've enjoyed watching Dippers & Grey Wagtails on the River Dove this weekend. Loads of Chiffchaffs singing, occasional Curlews & Skylark & a fair bit of raptor action too. Its not a bad time of year.

Butterbur, Petasites hybridus & Opposite-leaved Golden-saxifrage, Chrysosplenium oppositifolium, adding some colour to the banks of the River Dove in the #PeakDistrict #NationalPark #wildflowerhour

Ivy-leaved Speedwell, Veronica hederifolia subspecies lucorum with it's tiny, lilac flowers, blunt-lobed leaves & whitish anthers, the latter not 📷 Both subspecies are #archaeophytes in Britain. #wildflowerhour

Rue-leaved Saxifrage, Saxifraga tridactylites is one species you can never tire of finding. Here, above Thor's Cave in the Manifold Valley. #wildflowerhour

Erophila verna, Common Whitlowgrass 💚 On the Carboniferous limestones of the White Peak. #wildflowerhour in the #PeakDistrict National Park.

Early Dog-violet, Viola reichenbachiana. Still my favourite #botanical binomial. What a name that is. #wildflowerhour #Etymology

Sweet Violet, Viola odorata for #wildflowerhour Milldale, #PeakDistrict

My first Field Woodrush of the year. Good Friday Grass is pretty much always out well ahead of Good Friday these days, even when Easter is early. Another signs of the shifting patterns of nature because of what we have done, & continue to do, to the earth's atmosphere. #wildflowerhour #Phenology

Opposite-leaved Golden-saxifrage, Chrysosplenium oppositifolium apparently has the longest common name & scientific binomial in British botany. I can't remember who I learnt this from but it was almost certainly via #wildflowerhour #botany #etymology @bsbibotany.bsky.social

This whole concept in LOTR is one of my favourite parts of the whole book. “Evil fucks up because evil people fundamentally cannot imagine that others are not motivated by the same things as them” is another theme that feels relevant right now

Who funds Reform? Greens will never take dirty money - our members power our party. People and planet remain our only vested interests. Join.greenparty.org.uk

One in six private renters is now renting a former council home, often at extortionate rates – and often partly paid for by the government in the form of housing benefit. It's not just deeply unfair - it economically doesn't make any sense. www.standard.co.uk/news/politic...

A national survey of breeding waders is underway in #Wales, organised by @natreswales.bsky.social. All records of Curlews and Lapwings in potential breeding habitat are valuable, so please do share your knowledge via @cofnod.org.uk. 📷 Cameron Sharp www.birdnotes.wales/blog/welsh-w...

Prunus cerasifera (Cherry Plum), again for #wildflowerhour An excellent early nectar source. Gait Barrows #NNR, Silverdale

Always an early-season highlight for me, Danish Scurvygrass, Cochlearia danica #wildflowerhour at #Arnside #Railway Station, #Cumbria

White flowers for #wildflowerhour - Danish Scurvygrass, Common Whitlowgrass,Thale Cress, Wavy Bittercress, Common Mouse-ear & Cherry Plum #spring #Cumbria #Lancashire #Arnside #Silverdale

#Wildflowerhour #Signsofspring. One of my favourite spring flowers is Yellow Star Of Bethlehem (Gagea lutea) seen in Cumbria this week.

And Thale Cress, Arabidopsis thaliana, is now suddenly starting to appear. #wildflowerhour #PavementPlants #Arnside

Erophila verna, Common Whitlowgrass. #wildflowerhour #Arnside Knott #Cumbria

No. 1. The Larch. The Larch. #wildflowerhour

The first flowerheads of Blue Moor-grass, Sesleria caerulea. A sure sign that the wheel is turning and that #spring is here, even if we're not at the equinox quite yet. #wildflowerhour #Arnside Knott

It's Cherry Plum (Prunus cerasifera) time of year again. A widely planted #neophyte & it's easy to understand why given its attractiveness & early-flowering habit. Reflexed sepals, green young twigs & 🌼 usually before 🌿 are ID features. #wildflowerhour Gait Barrows #NationalNatureReserve #Silverdale

Today we gathered outside SSE's Glasgow office to urge them to stop the Berwick Bank offshore wind farm. Together we delivered a petition signed by 12,500 people opposing this damaging project. @seabirdcentre.bsky.social @n-t-s.bsky.social @mcsuk.bsky.social @scotwildlife.bsky.social

With a few days of sun & warmth this week ☀️, the seabird breeding season briefly turned up to 11 on the south coast. At the West Hayling lagoons, Mediterranean Gulls continue ro build in numbers & perform courtship, whilst Black-headed Gulls select territories 1/ #SuperSeabirdSunday

Dear Shabana, Let's clear some things up around migration and remember we're talking about people's lives.

New paper! Bird nests (Wood Warblers) are hubs of invertebrate biodiversity on forest floor, hosting more species/individuals than leaf litter. Probably due to heat & food detritus. Losing Wood Warblers = ecological networks lost. #ornithology resjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...