My final @bsbibotany.bsky.social new year plant hunt was in Wiltshire with a very respectable 50 species in flower. Highlights were Senecio viscosus and Veronica agrestis and of course excellent company #Wiltsbotsoc

Yesterday I undertook my first of three new year plant hunts. Considering it was a mainly rural walk I recorded 28 plants in flower. This included Lamium hybridum (a new hectad record), Stachys arvensis and hundreds of plants of Spergula arvensis (in bud but sadly not in flower).

Already pre-ordered my copy

Asplenium trichomanes subsp. pachyrachis is the rarest subspecies of maidenhair spleenwort found growing out of damp limestone with high humidity levels. Identified by its lobed leaves from which it gets its English name, lobed maidenhair spleenwort. This one was tucked away in the Wye Valley.

Surveying near the river Itchen in Hampshire today and pretty convinced this is Urtica dioica subsp. subinermis with only a few stinging hairs. @jo-the-botanist.bsky.social what do you think?

Back from the fantastic @bsbibotany.bsky.social Mentha workshop run by @ambroisebaker.bsky.social. I learnt a lot, mints can be so variable. On the field meeting we found a number of different species. First photo is M. x gracilis, second is M. x smithiana and third is M. x verticillata.

Up in Yorkshire at the moment for the @bsbibotany.bsky.social Mentha workshop. Quick walk before dinner and found a few interesting things including Bromus inermis ssp. inermis which is the more common of the two subspecies.

After several days at a music festival having my ears blasted, I thought it would be good to balance out with some botanising. A trip down to the Dorset heaths and I finally found Dorset heath Erica ciliaris and it's hybrid with Erica tetralix = Erica x watsonii in the middle of the family photo.

Having a fantastic week at the @bsbibotany.bsky.social summer meeting. Finding a fantastic range of sedges and grasses. Highlight of my week is finding Carex x boenninghausiana, the hybrid between remota and paniculata. Hierochloe odorata, Calamagrostis stricta and it's hybrid C. x gracilescens.

On route to the @bsbibotany.bsky.social annual summer meeting in Melrose, stopping off in Yorkshire to see some hawkweeds. Here is Ribbleshead hawkweed Hieracium caesitium with its very delicately blotched leaves.

Sweet galingale, Cyperus longus found on a recent botanical survey.

Found this wonderful purple form of Ononis spinosa whilst botanising near the Severn estuary. Ive never seen it in another colour form before.

So to balance out the orchid post earlier, here is a much better sedge find. Carex davalliana, one of the new sedges i saw this weekend. This sedge is sadly extinct in the UK but still found across much of Europe in calcareous flushes.

@bramblebotanist.bsky.social and I have had a fantastic day exploring alpine flora in the French alps. We found Gymnadenia rhellicani, a black vanilla orchid just opening.

Melampyrum nemorosum, wood cow wheat is abundant on the road verges in this area of france. A favourite of the trip so far.

Never thought I'd get to see a ghost orchid 😍 #orchid #ghostorchid #Epipogiumaphyllum

Fantastic #BSBIRubusWeekend2025 led by @bramblebotanist.bsky.social we saw lots of Norfolk specialities including a new Rubus species for the UK - Rubus paraplicatus one of the suberecti group.

Set a dozen batologists free in Broadland & rightly anticipate a few interesting bramble records.. not a new-to-GB waterlily. Nymphaea candida has small flowers with erect petals, filaments wider than anthers & concave stigmatic disc. Leaves with anastomosing veins at edges. @bsbibotany.bsky.social

Seems like a good year for Orobanche, especially yellow forms.

4 Gold-tailed Melitta males roosting in the musk mallow this evening. There were 5 or 6 about today so the others must be lurking nearby. #SolitaryBees

A few of us mad Wilts Bot Soc folks met up in the heat wave this morning. But we were rewarded with finding these monsters. Orobanche elatior forma citrina.

Forked Catchfly Silene dichotoma has reappeared in a local arable margin after a lapse of two years. Central Hampshire. @bsbibotany.bsky.social

Ornithogalum pyrenaicum, bath asparagus is having a fantastic year. The hedgerows around me are full with this beauty.

The walls around Bradford-on-Avon are looking fantastic with Hieracium argillaceum in full flower.

Fellow botanists can I ask for thoughts on this Galium. I've keyed it out as Galium constrictum but it's far from it's current known range. Downwards pointing stem hairs, hairs on the leaves pointing forward. Bright yellow green look to it and pink in bud.

A new plant for me today, and even better a new sedge! Carex muricata subsp. muricata in fantastic abundance.

So I finally joined Bluesky. I'm just back from an amazing Wiltshire flora group residential trip to the Suffolk/Norfolk borders. Some amazing plants, but Aristolochia hirta, breckland birthwort was the most out there plant we saw. Thanks @bramblebotanist.bsky.social for showing us around.