Warming induced miniaturization of plant community genome size Li et al. nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/share/JECEMU...

A new extreme of meiotic evolution: ✔️ 𝗻𝗼 crossovers ✔️ 𝗻𝗼 gene conversion ✔️ 𝗻𝗼𝗿𝗺𝗮𝗹 meiosis & fertility Sex mimics clonality without becoming asexual, in the holocentric multicellular eukaryote 𝘙𝘩𝘺𝘯𝘤𝘩𝘰𝘴𝘱𝘰𝘳𝘢 𝘵𝘦𝘯𝘶𝘪𝘴. more about it: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Yesterday I was with the Cambs Bryologists at the Devil's Dyke, an Anglo-Saxon causeway of chalk, sometimes reaching 10 m in height next to a deep ditch. It supports chalk grassland CG3/CG5, with CG5 occupying a holding position between grassland & scrub. Rhynchostegium megapolitanum- path edges

This week I spent the day at the Natural History Museum trying to decipher a herbarium sheet of Nitella dixonii with more labels than plant🌿 Taxonomy is basically historical detective work with dried algae & decades of marginalia= notes, scribbles and polite disagreements written all over the sheet.

Did anyone else have this poster on their bedroom wall growing up? "Chalk Grassland." This was basically one of the gateway drugs into botany- not only the plants but importantly they communities they grew in. I loved this poster & it still lives vividly in my imagination. @bsbibotany.bsky.social

Winter walk from Stoke Common to Burnham Beeches ❄️ Surface water was extensive at Stoke Common & continued in a similar form as we progressed. By Farnham Common, water was no longer held and beneath the Beeches was dry & stony. I follow a route I later discovered forms part of "Shakespeare’s Way".

Gransden & Waresley Woods with Cambs bryology. Following one of the coldest nights of the winter, the ground was frozen solid, and the light stark and monochromatically bright. Plagiochila asplenioides looking very frosty.

Looking for the Drovers Tracks across the UK. Before the railways transported livestock to market, animals and birds were herded along these routes. Ponds along the way watered the animals. Do the plant signals still exist? Does anyone have a map of the routes? @amiesphilip.bsky.social

I set up a new folder for my field notes this evening. Starting my fifth year, I write about 100 each year. Part of ongoing informal evidence-gathering to refine ecological understanding, field notes provide a way to record observations that complement formal surveys. A way of thinking out loud!

Drawdown species at Wilstone Reservoir. OK, so we know about the Norfolk Bladder-moss (Physcomitrium eurystomum), Riccia cavernosa, Mudwort (Limosella aquatica)--- but what's the green filamentous stuff? It's the largest constituent of mud-pioneer species. It physically competes with the others.

Out with the Cambs Bryology Hunt on Saturday, visiting Hayley Wood. My last visit to the woods was extremely wet, and I was musing about the hydrology here and its role in supporting all the special plant species. Neckera complanata in a festive mood around an Ash stool.🤪

Many thanks to the team at Cambridge University Herbarium for my visit on Thursday, particularly Juliet. Looking at the diaries of William Nicholson to find a description of his Portugal field trip with Hugh Neville Dixon for the 1st record of Nitella dixonii . I found it earlier this year.

Just back from Madeira — cracking plants everywhere! 🌿 Intensive botanising = pure heaven. Great for ferns, fern allies, liverworts + mosses. Highlights: • Adiantum hispidulum — loved the pattern of the pseudoindusia on the leaf underside • Asplenium obovatum subsp. billotii • Vandenboschia speciosa

Today I recorded 272 Scarce Tufted-sedge (Carex cespitosa) today — a 72.5% survival rate at Panshanger Park! It’s the driest site and completely rain-fed, which made things tough this summer. NE Species Recovery Capital Grant, awarded to HMWT.

The new Red List for Vascular Plants published this week by @bsbibotany.bsky.social highlights the serious decline in Britain’s freshwater plants.

🌿 Scarce Tufted-sedge (C. cespitosa) monitoring at Fir & Pond Woods (HMWT Reserve). Early planting in very high winter water levels, then months of drought — a real test of resilience, aided by pre-tussock formation. Still, 71 % establishment success! 💪 @naturalengland.bsky.social

I've been growing my Vaucheria algae for six days, so far & producing antheridia & oogonia. That means I can identify it to species level. This one was from Port Meadow. We are beginning to suspect that they can indicate fine habitats, perhaps those of long management continuity. Ready on Sunday?

I wanted to look at the Mudwort (Limosella aquatica) at Port Meadow this weekend, following the report of it by @trisnorton.bsky.social I wanted to find the Smut fungus Doassansia limosellae, which was last seen in the UK in 1929. No luck though. Here is Mudwort in flower! @bsbibotany.bsky.social

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.