Early purple orchids just beginning to appear on Minchinhampton common. #wildflowerhour

#wildflowerhour #woodlandplants Wild garlic out in force in a Gloucestershire wood today.

#wildflowerhour #cowslipchallenge A group of cowslips at Wytham woods on Thursday. Some of the flowers have been nibbled by something.

#wildflowerhour #treeflowers Wild Cherry, under a clear blue sky, earlier this week. Also ash buds bursting open. I am not sure if these are male or female. I don’t know how to tell the difference…?

#wildflowerhour #storyplants Happy to see my first bluebells of this year. Ray Mears once used chewed bluebell bulb sap (careful - it’s toxic!) to make glue to attach flight feathers to an arrow - an ancient tool - with knowledge from the Hadza tribe. Also once used as a bookbinders’ glue.

#wildflowerhour Warm sunshine at last. Marsh marigold, coltsfoot, wood anemone, and red-stemmed stork’s bill all emerging this week.

#wildflowerhour #whiteflowers Cherry plum, blackthorn

#wildflowerhour #whiteflowers Deadnettle with its top nibbled off, a white red deadnettle, daisy, white violet.

#wildflowerhour #signsofspring Primroses, and blackthorn bursting into bud

Shades of yellow this week, and variations in number and shape of petals. Celandine (this one reluctant to open in the rain) primrose, gorse, and aconite. #wildflowerhour

…and yet more snowdrops, glorious in Gloucestershire #wildflowerhour

Sunshine and showers this week. Sweet violet basking in the low winter sun, and some rain-drenched snowdrops. #wildflowerhour

Scarlet elf cup in our local wood this morning. A bright splash of colour against the moss. #fungifriday

#wildflowerhour Alder catkins and - I think - the flowers?

Snowdrops in an Oxford graveyard today. Not really wild I guess #wildflowerhour

Shepherd’s purse #wildflowerhour

Managed to spot ten this week: green alkanet, hazel, yarrow, stinking hellebore, petty spurge, primrose, red deadnettle, gorse, speedwell (common field?), and a bank of snowdrops, all in south Oxon. #wildflowerhour #thewinter10

Late for #wildflowerhour sorry. Two snowdrops just emerging.

Two of the few flowers spotted on a walk in South Oxfordshire today. Field scabious (I think - as it had a long stem) and ivy leaved toadflax. Also (not pictured) we saw yarrow, white dead-nettle, shepherd’s purse, primrose, violet, daisy, and thyme leaved speedwell - not quite the winter 10.

Two of the few flowers spotted on a walk in South Oxfordshire today. Field scabious (I think - as it had a long stem) and ivy leaved toadflax. Also (not pictured) we saw yarrow, white dead-nettle, shepherd’s purse, primrose, violet, daisy, and thyme leaved speedwell - not quite the winter 10.

Bush vetch still in flower in the Chilterns yesterday #wildflowerhour

#wildflowerhour #thewinterten Surprised myself by managing to find ten slightly bedraggled plants in flower on a rainy walk around our village today. Dandelion, daisy, red valerian, red deadnettle, hazel, primrose, yarrow (red and white forms) petty spurge, and white deadnettle.

A strange, wintery-looking combination this week - meadowsweet coming into flower (seems late?) looking at first glance like frosty seedheads, set against a background of greenery and bright red berries (of white briony I think). By our local pond, in Oxfordshire. #wildflowerhour

Upright coral fungus at Harcourt arboretum today #fungifriday

#wildflowerhour #thewinterten All from South Oxfordshire earlier in the week.

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

Listening to the sounds of Autumn in the Chilterns. (the fall . . . )

Sunny stroll in South Oxfordshire today. Names in ALT text. #wildflowerhour #thewinterten

#wildfungihour #wildflowerhour Some colourful specimens found during the last ten days in Oxfordshire. Beefsteak Polypore; Magpie Inkcap; Dyer’s Polypore; Lilac Fibrecap; Witch’s Hat; Chip Cherries (Identified using Seek app -hope names are accurate).

Hedge woundwort, field pansy, and red campion this week. #Wildflowerhour

Yew, hedge cranesbill, and greater knapweed, all caught my eye this week. #wildflowerhour

#Wildflowerhour Spotted a few of these unexpectedly this week, and I almost broke into song: “As I was going to Strawberry Fair, Singing, singing buttercups and daisies …” (no strawberries anywhere to be seen though…)

#wildflowerhour A solitary windswept harebell on Selsley common, a rain drenched red campion still in flower by the Sapperton Canal. Also Field Scabious and Spindleberries - not open so the wonderful colour-clash of orange seeds against the pink of the fruit casing is yet to appear.

#favouriteplant #wildflowerhour Blue sky with Blackthorn, early April this year. Now, five months later, this blossom has turned into a profusion of sloes.

#seedheads #Wildflowerhour Sorry, I am very late for wildflower hour. Angelica - but not sure which sort - in our local woodland. This one had a very dense seed head compared with its neighbours. And (k)napweed.

#wildflowerhour #fruits A tapestry of colourful fruit: walnut, hawthorn, blackberry, acorns, rosehips, and many, many sloes in south Oxfordshire this week.

Common centaury adding a pop of colour to a car park at Swaddywell Pit nature reserve, near Peterborough this week. #langdyke #swaddywell #wildflowerhour #gentianfamily

A pink form of yarrow, and a sunny patch of fleabane, both found in south Oxfordshire this week. #daisyfamily #wildflowerhour

#wildflowerhour #pollinatorpals Seven spot ladybird enjoying the sunshine today on some Rosebay Willowherb in the Chilterns.

Eyebright, Euphrasia (not sure which one) growing on a chalky Chiltern hillside. Tiny - it hides in the grass - and is one of my favourites. #wildflowerhour

Red bartsia, water mint, marjoram, and (I think?) black horehound? #wildflowerhour #deadnettlechallenge

In the pink? There seem to be many flowers in different pinkish shades at the moment. Some of them here … Rosebay willowherb, corn cockle, bramble, bindweed, yarrow. #wildflowerhour

#wildflowerhour Lady’s thumb and toadflax (with hidden bug)

Not a harebell but nettle leaved bellflower. One for the hairy plants challenge.

Happy to find harebells in the Cotswolds and Chilterns this week. #wildflowerhour #harebellchallenge

Great Willowherb - Epilobium hirsutum The stems were backlit by the sun, showing the hairs clearly, at eye level. #hairyplants #wildflowerhour

Viper’s bugloss competing in the hirsute challenge with a hungry hairy visitor #hairyplants #wildflowerhour

ID help please. At Bernwood Forest this week. I think it is common hedge nettle/purple betony. With small white spider. #wildflowerhour

Bernwood Meadows today - a colourful tapestry of flowers, dominated by knapweed, mostly purple, but with this odd white specimen. #wildflowerhour