The glory of Early Star of Bethlehem, in flower this year.

I love this little fern. Rustyback growing on a flint stone wall near home. Not many sites for it in Hampshire and it has disappeared from some sites on the Isle of Wight.

Nottingham Catchfly silene nutans is enjoying a second flush of flowers on Hayling Island.

Spiked Speedwell Veronica spicata still flowering beautifully in the Avon Gorge.

A surprise find in the shape of Dittrichia viscosa Woody Fleabane on the central reservation of a dual carriageway outside Southampton. Made my day!

May not be much to look at, but this is the very rare Potamogeton nodosus Loddon Pondweed looking rather attractive in a river on the Hampshire Berkshire border.

Another one for Sorbus fans: the rare Sorbus domestica growing on coastal cliffs in a remote spot along the river Severn.

One of my favourite species of dock: Rumex maritimus, golden dock, looking particularly golden in a damp meadow in Cambridgeshire

For Sorbus fans: Sorbus herefordensis growing on the edge of woodland in Herefordshire ( of course). A very handsome tree!

Not your usual mugwort, this is Chinese mugwort, which flowers much later in the season and has different leaves to common mugwort.

End of summer colour: golden samphire still putting on a great display along the sea wall at Broadmarsh, Hampshire.

This little beauty is the hybrid between common and pale toadflax, Linaria x sepium. Growing with Pale toadflax, Linaria repens, on chalk grassland on a disused railway embankment in Hampshire

Pale toadflax, Linaria repens, flowering happily on chalk grassland on a disused railway embankment in Hampshire

I found this persicaria capitata legging it down a drainpipe in Falmouth town centre! Made me smile 😃

Carline thistle looking particularly golden in the evening sun in Sharp Tor point, Devon

A trip to Dartmoor is not complete without seeing this gem, ivy leaved bellflower. Love seeing this!

Crataegus persimilis broad-leaved cockspur thorn growing well away from any garden, at the foot of a disused railway embankment in a remote part of north Devon

Pale toadflax ( Linaria repens) flowering happily on the shingle at Browndown, Hampshire

The white firm of Dorset Heath ( Erica cilliaris) on a Cornish heath. Magic!

Sea daffodils flowering in Cornwall today. Good for the soul.

Crinum x powellii ( white flowered form) well established on cliffs at Housel Bay, Lizard, Cornwall

I never tire of seeing jewelweed or orange balsam by the river Meon in Hampshire. Good for the soul.

Summer’s here: the wonderful clematis flammula or virgin’s bower, flowering sweetly at Ventnor, Isle of Wight ❤️

The delightfully quirky Tall Thrift Armeria maritima spp elongata at its type locality at Ancaster, Lincolnshire.

Found a new site for Violet Helleborine Epipactis purpurata in south Hampshire 👍.

A rather special helleborines: Epipactis sancta on Holy Island, doing well this year!

A blizzard of sneezewort today in a Hampshire hay meadow

Round-headed rampion in pristine condition on chalk grassland, Hampshire. ♥️

Here’s one for the sedge lovers. Finally tracked down True Fox Sedge, Carex vulpina, with its flabby ligule, near Coombe Hill, Gloucestershire.

Greater Dodder, seen at Coombe Hill, Gloucestershire.

American Cranberry , Vaccinium macrocarpon, flowering beautifully on a damp heath in Dorset. Not a British native but an interesting alien that is doing well at Ashley Heath.

A lovely assemblage of arable plants in a corner of a field: round leaved fluellen; dwarf spurge; small toadflax. In south Hampshire.

Quite unassuming but no less special for being so: Hampshire Purslane in the New Forest.

A great weekend leading a botanical meeting for a small group of members of the wild flower society in the New Forest. One of our highlights was coral necklace, found growing abundantly along a sandy track.

I love a good broomrape, and this is one: Orobanche elatior Knapweed Broomrape on chalk grassland near Winchester, Hampshire

You can’t help but love mountain pansies, seen in Glen Clova, Scotland.

Another Scottish alpine jewel from my recent trip to Scotland. Cochlearia micacea, or Mountain Scurvygrass, growing on serpentine rocks on Little Kilrannoch, Angus, Scotland.

A long hard slog to see Alpine Catchfly Silene suecica in the rain at Little Kilrannoch, Scotland. Well worth the pain! ❤️

For all the juncus junkies: juncus balticus Baltic Rush in Tentsmuir dune slacks, Fife.

A lovely twinflower living up to its name in Tentsmuir Forest, Fife.

Finally got to see the beauty that is Forked catchfly Silene dichotoma in an arable field in Hampshire!

Came across a beautiful patch of sneezewort today in a Hampshire hay meadow. ❤️

Wonderful to find a bee orchid on Speltham Down, Hampshire, this evening.

Other great plants seen on the IOW botany group meeting yesterday. Bastard toadflax Thesium humifusum and a pale pink Pyramidal Orchid.

Another great day on the Isle of Wight with Colin Pope, Eric Clement and members of the IOW botany group. We surveyed a new site for Purple Broomrape, finding plants on maritime chalk grassland.

Can’t help but love flowering rush, seen in the marshes around Cardiff Bay.

Saxifraga stolonifera naturalising along retaining wall by the river Taff, Cardiff. Love the detail and colour in the flowers.

Cultivated varieties of papaver somniferum growing on waste ground near Barry Docks, Wales. What’s not to like about their sumptuous colour and presence!

The fen orchids are starting to bloom at Kenfig Burrows ❤️

The wonderfully quirky wild leek, allium ampeloprasm ssp. babingtonii, looking like a firework about to go off.