We've been working with @metoffice.gov.uk to analyse 10 years of #NewYearPlantHunt data. The analysis provides the clearest evidence yet of how rising temperatures are impacting the British & Irish flora, with knock-on effects for all our wildlife. www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Any thoughts on including this Lysimachia arvensis in the #NewYearPlantHunt ? We've erred on the side of caution and omitted it at present but aware that the flowers can close up in certain weather conditions. It was a fairly bright, cold and dry day though. @bsbibotany.bsky.social

Some amazing figures from the first two days of the #NewYearPlantHunt. We've managed two surveys so far in Cumbria. The most unexpected finds have been both Aira praecox and caryophyllea. Lets see what we can find today. @bsbibotany.bsky.social

Crepis capillaris (Smooth Hawk's-beard) on Arnside Knott today. Looking likely to be a few in flower for the #NewYearPlantHunt. 2 days to go. @bsbibotany.bsky.social

One of the more common winter-flowering grasses - Dactylis glomerata, Cock's-foot. #wildflowerhour Witherslack, South #Cumbria

I walked right past this one 3 times before I finally spotted it. Nipplewort, Lapsana communis. #StillFlowerimg for #wildflowerhour Witherslack South #Cumbria

Becoming something of a regular find in December (but nowhere near as much of an outlier as my October 2023 record). Just one in flower, plus one in bud, from a cast of hundreds. Saxifraga tridactylites, Rue-leaved Saxifrage. #wildflowerhour Yewbarrow, #Cumbria

The #Winter10 (11) #wildflowerhour Rue-leaved Saxifrage, Primrose, Nipplewort, Petty Spurge, Gorse, Cock's-foot, Annual Meadow-grass, Wavy Bittercress, Hazel, Creeping Buttercup & Daisy. Lets see if I can do as well on the #NewYearPlantHunt next week. All from Witherslack, South #Cumbria

A canopy beneath the canopy... The magic of an Irish rainforest.

It's not every day you find a new native species for Scotland! Day 22 of my botanical #adventcalendar is Shiny Glasswort - a nationally rare plant never recorded in Scotland before Growing in a salt pan on the Forth Estuary - branching pattern, colour and flower size the ID clues #wildflowerhour

Feb 2021 stuck 10 dehydrated Mistletoe seeds to our 2 apple trees Today plants doing well.... #WildflowerHour #Northumberland #WildlifeGarden

Gorse, brightening a #winters day in South Cumbria. It had many uses on the past, including as winter fodder for horses and cattle (after being crushed). A fascinating account here - share.google/T6HC2VJdvqyG... #wildflowerhour

It's time for the Gov to stop (ab)using nature as the scapegoat for its planning woes... review after review shows that Nature isn't to blame!

It's pretty late to find Lesser Trefoil (Trifolium dubium) #StillFlowering. Then again, it's so easy to miss when there's only a little and I only found the one flower here at Arnside Knott earlier in the week. Early for #Wildflowerhour this week. @nationaltrust.org.uk

Smooth Hawk's-beard (Crepis capillaris) tends to be one of the latest flowering winter species outside of the genuine year-rounders up here. Still some in flower on the most species-rich limestone grasslands. Will it make it to the #NewYearPlantHunt though? Early for #wildflowerhour

#Ferns really add interest to #winter #woodland walks when there is so little in the way of flowering plants. Narrow Male-fern (Dryopteris cambrensis) & Scaly Male-fern (D. affinis ssp affinis) at Witherslack Woods. #WildFernHour / #WildflowerHour #Cumbria @bsbibotany.bsky.social

🌿 The UK’s latest biodiversity indicators show the urgent need to boost habitat connectivity and improve protected areas. This is vital for reptiles and amphibians. 📄 Full details in our latest newsletter below: https://www.arc-trust.org/News/connecting-habitats-and-biodiversity-indicators

Finally, a fern! Day 10 of my botanical #adventcalendar is the delicate Alpine Lady-fern, a species of Scottish mountains that grows where the snow lies late, consequently declining linked to changing climate I find the pattern of its fronds very restful, almost hypnotic to look at... #wildfernhour

This is really great news. #Hoylake beach is a remarkable place and these dynamic green beach habitats are so so rare around our constrained and over-managed coastline. A big win for #nature. Well done @joshual951.bsky.social and all involved 💚

"Wowsers!" is what I imagine Graham Goodfellow said when he found this beauty in West Sutherland this summer! This is the hybrid between Frog Orchid and Heath-spotted Orchid, Dactylorhiza x conigera - just the 6th record for B&I and a worthy Day 7 for my botanical #adventcalendar #wildflowerhour

#Yew saplings growing out of the walls of Minster Lovell Hall. A handy reminder that we are never in charge for long. #Nature will always find a way. #wildflowerhour

Shepherd's purse, Capsella bursa-pastoris #StillFlowering for #wildflowerhour Minster Lovell, #Oxfordshire

White & Red Dead-nettle, Lamium album & purpureum #StillFlowering for #wildflowerhour Growing by the magnificent ruins of Minster Lovell Hall. Two #archaeophytes both of which can be found in flower for much of the year. L. album is a classic winter-flowering species. #Oxfordshire

Opposite-leaved Pondweed Groenlandia densa by the River Ems, Hampshire. Although not flowering, the last time this species was recorded on the Ems -1887- Queen Victoria had just been celebrating her Golden Jubilee. @bsbibotany.bsky.social #wildflowerhour

Not so much about this week but I did find this Field Forget-me-not, Myosotis arvensis struggling on in the cold snap a few days ago. #wildflowerhour #Arnside #Cumbria

CEO-to-worker pay ratio in 1965: 20-1 CEO-to-worker pay ratio in 1990: 75-1 CEO-to-worker pay ratio today: 280-to-1 Trickle-down economics was always a sham. Nothing has ever trickled down.

Incoming... (Sound on) #Starlings @rspbengland.bsky.social Leighton Moss

Sea Radish, Raphanus raphanistrum subsp. maritimus. Quite a bit sill in flower on the Arnside - Silverdale coastline. #wildflowerhour #NationalLandscapes #Cumbria #Lancashire

A large Petty Spurge, Euphorbia peplus. #StillFlowering in #Silverdale #wildflowerhour

Stunning Sea Mayyweed. #StillFlowering for #wildflowerhour

Smooth Hawk's-beard, Crepis capillaris. Holding on after recent floods & frosts. #wildflowerhour at #RSPB Leighton Moss & along the #Silverdale shore

The #Winter10 (11) from the #Silverdale coast. #wildflowerhour in #Lancashire Sea Mayweed, Sea Radish, Smooth Hawk's-beard, Nipplewort, Yarrow, Herb-Robert, Cock's-foot, Annual Meadow-grass, Hogweed, Smooth Sow-thistle & Ragwort.

A luxuriant patch of Black Spleenwort growing on a limestone wall in Silverdale. Wonderful botanical name - Asplenium adiantum-nigrum. A somewhat scarce species locally these days. #WildFernHour ahead of tonight's #wildflowerhour

One-flowered glasswort (Salicornia disarticulata) still looking good on a North Norfolk saltmarsh. Distinctive little thing once known. The single flowers seem to typically turn reddish. Most other glassworts had died off for the winter already.

Visted RSPB Arne in Dorset yesterday: the gorse was in flower in many parts of the heath, and I also saw some common heather, bell heather, and some hedge woundwort. #wildflowerhour

I thought it would be pretty much done by for the year now but there was actually a fair amount of Wild Thyme, Thymus drucei, still in flower up on Whitbarrow Scar today. #Wildflowerhour

It’s Sunday & it’s 8pm so it must be time for #wildflowerhour! Please share your pics of the wild & naturalised blooms you’ve spotted from across Britain & Ireland in the last week and did you manage to spot #thewinter10, our challenge for the coldest months! ☺️

Nipplewort, Lapsana communis, growing as a #PavementPlant in #Arnside #wildflowerhour

Common Cord-grass, Spartina anglica #StillFlowering despite being in the #sea repeatedly over recent days. It is a fascinating & remarkable species, albeit often a problematic one. #Wildflowerhour #Arnside #Cumbria

Hogweed, a most underrated species. The flowers are beautiful when you look closely - zygomorphic (mirror symmetry) & outer flowers with the biggest size difference between the petals. A late-flowering specimen seen at #RSPB Leighton Moss. #wildflowerhour

Hard Fern, Blechnum spicant is very common in the Lake District but as a calcifugous species you don't often see it on limestone habitats. Found this nice specimen with both frond types in a limestone woodland at The Howe, Whitbarrow today. #wildfernhour - #wildflowerhour

I am bewildered that this labour of Sisyphus is being carried out by volunteers, while Southern Water, which has admitted responsibility for the catastrophe, is doing nothing to remediate it.

Always a bit of a surprise to flush #Snipe from habitats like this. Gait Barrows #NNR #limestone pavement

On Monday 17th November we have a webinar from our @npwsireland.bsky.social-funded Targeted Aquatic Plants Project. This webinar, from the fantastic Nick Stewart, is about the identification of non-native aquatic plants. Interested? Book yourself a ticket here: www.tickettailor.com/events/botan...

Petty Spurge, Euphorbia peplus prefers "... well-drained and nutrient-rich soils in sun-warmed situations..." & so probably isn't enjoying the current water levels at RSPB Leighton Moss all that much at present. @rspbengland.bsky.social @bsbibotany.bsky.social plantatlas2020.org/atlas/2cd4p9...

Much talk all the time of freshwater wetlands being great filters & cleaning water. We must remember that sending dirty water into wetlands destroys them. There is nothing more certain in science than that. Make wetlands clean!!! @ramsar.org @freshwaterbio.bsky.social

Ok President Trump, if you sue the BBC for $1bn for spreading lies, I’ll sue you for the same amount. I reckon Planet Earth would crowdfund that. Then I’ll buy Mar A Largo, turn it into a climate change research centre, free Melania, and put a 1000% tariff on orange face paint.

Tufted Forgot -me-not, Myosotis laxa. @rspbengland.bsky.social Leighton Moss. #wildflowerhour

Sea Radish, Raphanus raphanistrum subsp. maritimus, growing on a recently inundated upper #saltmarsh We've had several more very high tides since so it's probably looking very bedraggled by now. #Wildflowerhour