Today I saw something very special: there are just 12 populations of this exceptionally rare desert bulb (Colchicum psammophilum) and only it flowers for a short time after winter rain. To find it in bloom is miraculous.

Today, ecologist Matias Hernandez and I found THIS! A gigantic desert hyacinth (Cistanche phelypaea) like a sunbeam in the sand. To see a specimen like this in full bloom is magic💫

My Christmas gift was finding a 'brown bluebell' (Dipcadi serotinum) that looked as though it drew up its colour from the desert:

Today on a desert slope, I found frosted Christmas stars: a rare succulent (Apteranthes burchardii) that produces starbursts of blossom after it rains:

Septian (Deki) Andriki is the real hero of the expedition: every wondrous thing I've seen and posted on this adventure is thanks to him. We thank you brother x

The people of Sumatra have shown me such kindness, welcoming me into their homes, and sharing with me their incredible wisdom, one magical plant at a time. From the bottom of my heart: thank you all x

Trekking by night reveals an enchanted forest: waking animals; wild music; and a special plant (Amorphophallus manta) that glows pink by torchlight. It's like walking in a dreamworld.

In the Sumatran rainforest's deepest reaches, strange plants - that scarcely resemble plants at all - blossom unseen. This rarity is Balanophora papuana. We found mounds of it rising from the forest floor like little reefs of coral.

Thank you Pak Saikul, friends and family, for making me so welcome and for sharing your special flower with us 🙏🏻

I know I'm spamming you all with the world's largest flower this week but look at THIS! A rare glimpse inside Rafflesia arnoldi!

A rare glimpse inside the largest flower on earth, seen today in the Sumatran jungle:

Earlier on the expedition we found the most beautiful flower, and here, my friends, is the biggest: Rafflesia arnoldi seen in full bloom today in the Sumatran jungle. This is the largest flower on earth and one of the greatest wonders of the natural world.

Rafflesia hasseltii: a plant seen more by tigers than people. Watching this flower open by night was the closest thing to magic:

A life-changing encounter in Sumatra: Rafflesia hasseltii grows in just a few remote, tiger-patrolled rainforests, accessible only under permit and seen by few. We trekked day and night to find it, and look what happened when we did.

WE FOUND IT! We trekked day and night through tiger-patrolled Sumatran rainforests accessible only under permit for this: Rafflesia hasseltii. Few people have ever seen this flower, and we watched it open by night. Magic.

About to step off the map for a while. Wish us luck x

Today in Sumatra we found forest ghost flowers (Aeginetia sp.). This leafless, parasitic plant has no need for sunlight and blossoms unseen in the very depths of the forest.

The Sumatran jungle is a place where plants corkscrew themselves out of the ground:

Deep in the Sumatran jungle today we found the extraordinary flowers of Rhizanthes pushing their fangs through the forest floor. A sap-sucking, leafless parasite, this is one of the world's weirdest plants.

Today we found something magical, deep in the wild green heart of Sumatra: Rafflesia kemumu in full bloom. One of the world's largest flowers, to see this extremely rare species in full bloom is truly special.

Back in the land of happy plants and people: Sumatra 💫

It's good to be back in the land of the snake fruit (Salacca zalacca). Indonesia 🫶🏻

Trevesia burckii produces otherworldly leaves the shape of snowflakes. This formation may be an adaptation to help sunlight filter down to lower leaves, helping the plant photosynthesize in shaded forests.

Eloise, my 9 year old toad, changes colour with the season. Today she's wearing her best autumn colours. Toads alter their skin colour using pigment-containing cells that expand or contract in response to temperature and light. Soon she'll turn dark brown as the nights get cold.

STUNNING new family book by @jondrori.bsky.social showing how plants' lives and ours are intertwined. Imaginative, beautiful, fun x

A pencil portrait I've just completed featuring Rhizanthes deceptor - one of the world's strangest flowers - and its custodians, in the Sumatran rainforest.

The world's smallest and largest flowers:

A montage of nature I have painted over the years:

Today we described a new species of 'desert hyacinth': Cistanche mimii, from the Middle East. Welcome to science you beautiful thing ✨ Published in #Phytokeys.

A pencil portrait I've just completed featuring a farmer I met in Inner Mongolia. Like many of my subjects, I suppose he'll never see his portrait - never know that the brief moment my orbit swung into his would be captured forever in graphite ✨

Little dancing little stars ✨ The seed-heads of a pincushion starflower (Lomelosia stellata).

A pencil sketch I've just completed depicting Ma Xue Mei, a farmer I met on an expedition to Inner Mongolia who grows medicinal plants sustainably.

Turning over a fern leaf reveals an astonishing stencilled constellation of spores:

Look what my night-flowering cactus just did:

Ghost flowers (Monotropa uniflora) rise from the forest floor like pale seahorses. They lack leaves, roots and chlorophyll because rather than manufacturing food from sunlight, they steal it from an underground fungus.

Once in a while one of my succulents sends a star into the world ⭐

It was a privilege to meet these farmers in Inner Mongolia last month. Sketching is my little way of thanking the world for the beauty it sends my way x

The floating leaves of the mosaic plant (Ludwigia sedioides) form self-assembling rafts of diamonds that slowly conquer the water.

Gutted that you missed our recent #WildFlowerID webinars? Mulleins (with @anaturalistabroad.bsky.social) Mints (with @ambroisebaker.bsky.social) Broomrapes (with @christhorogood.bsky.social) No problem, we recorded them & the videos are on our YouTube channel: www.youtube.com/playlist?lis...

Some pitcher plants of Borneo I have just finished illustrating in pen and ink:

Here are samples of 'meat ginseng' (Cistanche deserticola) I saw on an expedition to the Inner Mongolian desert last month. These are the underground stems, harvested for Traditional Chinese Medicine. Used as a tonic for strength, they resemble snakes, and can reach the size of pythons!

Today on a roadside in southern Italy, I found picris broomrape (Orobanche picridis), a rare parasitic plant that sends up ambitious spears of white blossom. It is my gift to conjure these plants out of the earth wherever I go 💫

A watercolour illustration of Nepenthes stenophylla I've just completed. #art #illustration #botanicalillustration #arte #watercolour #watercolor #acuarela #nepenthes

Our sapphire tower (Puya alpestris) blossomed today for the first time in five years. It is native to the Chilean Andes where its flowers - an improbable shade of blue - are visited by birds.

Sometimes I see so much natural beauty on my expeditions it can be hard to make sense of at the time. Here is a collection of some of the many 'desert hyacinths' (Cistanche spp.) I found in the Inner Mongolian Desert last week - plants that erupt out of the sand like floral fireworks.

The curious life forms of suǒ yáng 锁阳 (Cynomorium), seen last week in the Inner Mongolian Desert. Suǒ yáng has a unique history of use in treating a whole host of ills, including 'sexual problems'. A leafless parasite, it steals its food from the roots of desert shrubs, and is pollinated by flies.

My expedition's aim was to meet local farmers. 'Rou Cong Rong' has potential as a future food in a changing world. Summoned out of sand as if by magic, I learned how, through wizardry, wisdom & more. Thank you China & Inner Mongolia for all you taught me. With love, your little tiger 小虎

Rou cong rong, or 'meat ginseng', is a herb harvested here for Traditional Chinese Medicine that looks like something out of Hogwarts. Its fat, scaly stems - used here as a tonic for strength - resemble snakes.

We took bikes into the heart of the Inner Mongolian desert to meet local families who harvest medicinal herbs sustainably. I found rare plants, sunshine and kindness there.

The Mongolian Desert is full of curiosities. Among the strangest is Cynomorium, which forces its red fists through the sand. Here it is a much-valued plant, harvested sustainably by locals, to treat stomach complaints.