Completely blown away today by how the Scarce Tufted-sedge (Carex cespitosa) was faring on the River Gade. It was with trepidation that I entered the river. Vegetation had grown tall this summer. 2025 was one of the worst for reintroducing a wetland plant. Summer drought followed high winter water.

A mere ten days ago I was at the 17th International Symposium on Aquatic Plants in Lisbon. Here on the field trip: A Cladium Mariscus Saw Sedge floating mat in the River Sado, topped with Salix atrocinerea. Other species were Royal Fern (Osmunda regalis), and Marsh Fern (Thelypteris palustris).

I was looking through my photos from Porto from earlier this year. Strapwort (Corrigiola litoralis) had been looking very fine. It grew with Coral-necklace (Illecebrum verticillatum) on a path with a seepage running across it. What a lovely plant!

OK, so the Cambs Fenland drains had a Water-plantain. The leaves had perished in the summer, & it may have been either A. plantago-aquatica or A. lanceolatum. Luckily, it was fruiting. A) A. plantago-aquatica= achenes had a single furrow on the back. B) A. lanceolatum= two furrows. Answer is A.

Sphagnum squarrosum in a swampy woodland pond in the New Forest on Monday. Such a pretty moss!

I spotted an Asian Hornet in Portugal. It was surprisingly unafraid. I saw there were 344 records for this species in the Lisbon area.

A fight going on in the rice fields of the Tagus Estuary near Lisbon. Azolla filiculoides and Lemna gibba fighting it out for supremacy. The Azolla fronds arching upwards to cover the Lemna, and the Lemna becoming as gibbous as possible to prevent this. They are seemingly resorting to fisticuffs.

A wonderful Mint workshop with @ambroisebaker.bsky.social in Yorkshire. Some really interesting mint species and hybrids were seen. M. x smithiana (aquatica x spicata x arvense). With M. x verticillata (arvense x aquatica) nearby and long-gone M. spicata possibly from a nearby garden.

Collecting seeds from Walter’s type location for Common Spike-rush (subsp. palustris), nearly 75 years since he made that first voucher. It felt like a momentous occasion. Wakehurst Millenium Seed Bank visit by Stephanie Miles & Sarah Willard. Many thanks Rob Dixon RSPB for facilitating the visit.

I had the chance to visit Hatchet pond after work on Friday, choosing not to try driving to Herts until the M25 had calmed. A pond that was well botanised, but also decided to take in the algae. The inlet to the pond with a patchwork of fresh and decaying Zygnema species.

Ivy-leaved Crowfoot (Ranunculus hederaceus) found today on the track in the Lymington Reedbed. A bare mud opportunity and not fussy about nutrient levels. Just look at the size of the Greater Plantain (Plantago major) I found a short distance away! Must be on steroids or else well-fed and watered.

Finally, in the New Forest I finally found Branched Bur-reed subspecies erectum! Everything else had been subspecies neglectum. Told apart by the ripe seed shape. Subspecies neglectum has a gradually tapering apex to the nut. This has definite shoulders.

Back to Hertfordshire for the weekend and dipped into the ponds at Purwell Ninesprings. It seemed the flow of water from the springs into the fens had been reversed, and the chalky nature reduced. Fen to bog danger! One pond a sea of Common Stonewort (Chara vulgaris),

I felt very privileged to find Hay-scented Buckler-fern (Dryopteris aemula) in a very humid valley on a very humid day in the New Forest. Triangular fronds, with crisped leaves and even the indusia had a pie crust edge.

Out in the field again in the New Forest this week; amazed & excited by the plants & habitats. So pleased to see Slender Marsh-bedstraw (Galium constrictum) which again was in a livestock-poached stream edge. A tall, strong specimen waving like a flag. Pink-tingled buds.

Out in the field again in the New Forest this week. Once again, I am blown away by the plant species and the freshwater habitats. Here I found Square-stalked Willowherb (Epilobium tetragonum). A closer look revealed subsp. lamyi! Found in a few places...

Low genetic diversity in populations of a clonal #invasiveplant limits sexual reproduction New #AJB research by Ian Pearse, Zoe Becker, Paul Ode, John Gaskin & Natalie West doi.org/10.1002/ajb2... #botany #plantscience #pollen #Brassicaceae

OK for #PollinatorPals #WildflowerHour I have Rose Chafer (Cetonia aurata) completely blotto on Hemp agrimony (Eupatorium cannabinum). 😀 A beetle version of too many cream cakes!

New Forest track rut erupting in a green covering of lettuce-like Fossombronia. Acid Frillwort (Fossombronia wondraczekii) determined using the spore ornamentation. Amazing how the track ruts retain water even at this time of year!

Three out of nine ponds I surveyed in the New Forest this week had the crazy-looking liverwort Riccia fluitans. Usually a floating species, it can also grow terrestrially. It seemed to thrive growing across decaying vegetation. We really need some rain!

Busy week surveying and back home. I was tempted to take this beautiful Bolete back for dinner, but there was a tiny jumping spider (?) patrolling it.

#WildflowerHour #ByTheSea Not quite the sea, but Wilstone Reservoir, Hertfordshire. At the top of the drawdown zone, a vast carpet of Red Goosefoot (Oxybasis rubra) and the chunky Water Chickweed (Stellaria aquatica).

Riccia cavernosa at Wilstone Reservoir today. An amazing amount of it! Many tiny thalli across the drawdown mud. Also, some thalli were much larger than I've seen here previously, usually only approaching that size in November.

Found in two resurrected Ghost ponds on Colney Heath: a double form of Creeping Buttercup (Ranunculus repens var. degeneratus) from separately seeded plants. Then, I remembered John Warren had done a "count the petals on a Buttercup" to find the oldest UK meadows.

Orange Balsam (Impatiens capensis) on a lake side. When I first learnt its name, I thought of this as the "Capri Sun" of the Balsms. Strange-yes, but I've never forgotten its name. A neophyte like I. glandulifera. I find it quite widely distributed but not as invasive as it's flamboyant cousin.

With little spring rain and recent warm weather we are seeing blooms of Blue-green Algae. In Bucks last week and found the curly Dolichospermum circinale, looking like a microbial charm bracelet. Heterocysts spherical 9 µm. Alkanete 14 µm wide, 22 µm long. Common Spike-rush & Water Dock nearby.

Ragweed (Ambrosia artemisiifolia) in Milton Keynes today. A plant which when flowers, produces a highly allergenic pollen. A single plant, and I'm now wondering if I should have pulled it up. Frost sensitive and from the Americas.

What's this?? Marsilea quadrifolia in Bucks. It looks like a Shamrock, but it's actually an aquatic plant! And a fern! This one had been planted and liked the shallows, producing dense vegetation.

Wood Club-rush (Scirpus sylvaticus) found today growing thickly around a pond in Oxfordshire. National declines are put down to both over-grazing, cutting it down, or under-grazing, promoting rank vegetation.

Rain this weekend allowed me to catch up on admin after a very busy time. Vouchers prepared, and the "Dockey Wood Bramble" in an envelope ready to send to BSBI Bramble Referee for my area, Alex Prendergast. This one took two sheets to show inflorescence, primocane, and stem leaves.

A really tall Greater Tussock-sedge (Carex paniculata) stuck in secondary Alder woodland. Height is determined by age and hydroperiod; the depth and duration of water.

#StrangeFriends What are these two doing together? Bog Asphodel (Narthecium ossifragum) Blunt-flowered Rush (Juncus subnodulosus) Mixed influences through a mire.

Dockey Wood Bramble, a species I found a few years ago. It hadn't been identified to species level yet, & the suggestion from Rob Randall was that it was closest to the illustration of R. leptadenes in Eedes & Newton. The upper stem leaves large, & the canes are vigorous, with large leaves as well.

Thanks Jim for making sure our aquatic plants and priority ponds are given full attention. They indeed look fab. Many thanks 😀

After spending the week in the New Forest it was nice to join the BSBI batology bunch up in Norfolk, under the guidance of Alex Prendergast, with the knowledgeable John Norton & others. In the New Forest, Marsh Fern (Thelypteris palustris) subsumed in 2o Alder wood, & the Broads, reed fen.

Soft & Hard thrown together for #WildflowerHour rush or #GrassChallenge. Juncus effusus × inflexus = J. × ⁠diffusus Hybrid vigour with stems to 1.5 m, wide ridges, short capsule, near-continuous pith. W5 woodland in the New Forest at the junction of the plateau gravels & base-rich Headon Bed clays.

Coral-necklace (Illecebrum verticillatum) at the edge of an ephemeral pond in the New Forest last week. Open, pioneer conditions are so important for this stress-tolerant species. The population I was surveying was presently dependent on dogs poaching the pond edge!

Out with Herts Flora Group today near Pirton, Herts. Tall Ramping-fumitory (Fumaria bastardii) on arable margin. 2nd record for Herts, last seen before 1969. Single colour petals, tiny frilly sepals, rugose fruit. Flower 10 mm. More common in the west of the country. An interesting occurrence here.

Out in the New Forest and finding loads of fabulous plants. Don't mess with Oblong-leaved Sundew (Drosera intermedia)! Or ponies! I managed to photograph this while being followed by a particularly persistent pony. I hid at one point but it broke into a gallop on spotting me; just wanting cuddles!

Non-native Lemna valdiviana, New Forest last week in a pond with some horticultural introductions. Palid/ whitish, thin fronds in butterfly formation. The highly visible vein runs to > 3/4 the length of the frond, slightly beyond the aerenchyma (air pockets). @bsbibotany.bsky.social

I joined my Colleague David Morris at his Oxfordshire fen restoration site, and Freshwater Habitats Trust efforts had paid off. New to the site was Bog Pimpernel (Anagalis tenella), and after a long absence, the arched spikes of Marsh Helleborine (Epipactis palustris) waiting to break into flower.

It was a Red letter day for me! I had confirmed from my recent trip to Porto, the rare stonewort: Nitella dixonii. It's critically endangered on the provisional Red List of European Charophytes. Last recorded in Portugal in 1938! It was in a track pool downhill from a spring with many nice plants.

The mire at Burnham Beeches today. We bowed to the Royal Fern and made our way along the boardwalk, thankfully not treading on the very dry and now fragile mat of Sphagnum, bleached white in the drought.

I was in the New Forest this week and enjoyed seeing a fascinating wet heath with the underlying geology giving a calcareous input. There is superb species richness with such mixed influences. Pale Butterwort (Pinguicula lusitanica) in a mixture of stress tolerators.

In Northants this week & marveling at the plant colonisation speed of a newly-created pond. Found in the landscape Common & Pond Water-crowfoots (aquatilis & peltatus). Both arrived within 8 months thanks to our feathered friends. R. peltatus is regionally rare. The power of aquatic plant mobility!

Chalk Fragrant-orchid (Gymnadenia conopsea) on another new site for Herts this week. Nice to see it can colonise new chalky places when conditions are right. Accompanied by the usual suspects, it puts into perspective places like Hexton chalk pit. @bsbibotany.bsky.social @wildflowerhour.bsky.social

A big thank you to the Woodland Trust, who have cleared a chalk grassland of scrub in Herts. A new record for the site: Four flower spikes of Greater Butterfly-orchid (Platanthera chlorantha). Let's hope that the Chiltern Gentian will also reappear! @wildflowerhour.bsky.social

I had a trick alga yesterday in Herts. Not an alga at all but a ciliated protozoan. Ophrydium versatile What's it doing in the southeast? Perhaps under recorded because it tricks people? Family unimpressed by blob in fridge!

Common Water-crowfoot (Ranunculus aquatilis) this week in a beautiful pond in Little Hallingbury. Joined by Thread-leaved Water-crowfoot (Ranunculus trichophyllus) in the shallows. Nice pond edge, gently grazed, and boosting biodiversity. Light, dappled shade promoting plant establishment.

Maybe clonal plants should be allowed to drink alcohol and drive a car later than non-clonals? plantlifebelowground.wordpress.com/2025/05/28/w...