Kicked off my #NewYearPlantHunt with a quick walk around the block and found 10 flowering wildflowers in just over 10 minutes! @bsbibotany.bsky.social

Delighted to explore Drumaness Village in Co Down today for a #NewYearPlantHunt with some of the locals. We managed to find 9 species flowering, interestingly some were not on the NI top 10! @bsbibotany.bsky.social

We're delighted that our friends @the-wildlifetrusts.bsky.social have made #NewYearPlantHunt a #12DaysWild activity! Find out how to take part & learn more about how our wild plants are responding to a changing climate & what this means for all our wildlife: www.wildlifetrusts.org/blog/guest/j...

So will we see longer lists than ever this year? Visit the #NewYearPlantHunt results page (nyph.bsbi.org/results.php) to find out what's been spotted so far 🌼 Even better, do your own hunt: it's great fun & provides vital information on the effects of #climatechange #Botany @bsbibotany.bsky.social 🌸

What fun to take part in the #NewYearPlantHunt again. Keen to see how my walks this year compare to my finds last year. For Day 1, I walked my local loop - 14 species found in flower today. Such a lovely walk along the Fleet with plenty to enjoy including a bonus Little Egret in one of the channels.

Wood Avens and Bush Vetch both seen flowering today - hopefully I'll see them both again tomorrow for the first day of the New Year Plant Hunt! Spotter sheets etc., can be found here if you want to take part: bsbi.org/take-part/ac...

No better way to walk off the mince pies & chocs! If you'd like to #NewYearPlantHunt in #Ireland, check out these group hunts planned from 1-4 Jan (Or plan your own of course!) For more info, see bsbi.org/take-part/ev... @bsbibotany.bsky.social @ulsterwildlife.bsky.social @hannahmul.bsky.social

What an exciting find! Great for botanists that many #ferns can still be seen through the winter months 😄 ❄️🧤🌿 #uplandplants @donncha-oc.bsky.social @ollysflora123.bsky.social @phoebeobrien.bsky.social @npwsireland.bsky.social @cedar-ni.bsky.social @irishwoodlandtrust.bsky.social

By *complete* chance, I bumped into a population of 50+ Hutchinsia today in Derbyshire, a species I have only ever seen once before in my life! It's a pretty localised species (see Plant Atlas: share.google/sBUUzjuwSpSP...) so delighted to bump into it by chance.

The last #wildflowerhour of 2025 & wasn’t it a lovely one! Lots in flower but will they still be in bloom for the #NewYearPlantHunt which begins on 1st January, let’s meet again next Sunday to find out! Head over to @bsbibotany.bsky.social to find out how to take part!

Huge thanks to everyone who shared pix through 2025 for #WildFlowerHour: you've brightened our Sunday evenings! Big thank you to @botanybeck.bsky.social who leads the @wildflowerhour.bsky.social team! Hope you'll all take part in #NewYearPlantHunt starting on New Year's Day! bsbi.org/take-part/ac...

Annual Mercury isn't very showy but as you can see from the photo it was very close to the fence of the building site in Bristol. It does seem to like the disturbed ground there. #WildflowerHour

Greater periwinkle flowering in Ely this week. #WildflowerHour

Hogweed seedheads, Wigton. #WildflowerHour

Daisy portrait II. #WildflowerHour

The sun shone yesterday just enough for me to capture a few surviving flowers in bloom for this week's #WildflowerHour #TheWinter10 challenge 🙂 It was such a nice change from the rain, I even took a proper camera 😅 Names in ALT text. @wildflowerhour.bsky.social @bsbibotany.bsky.social

In recent years, I usually see the odd pink anemone-like female Hazel catkin before Christmas. I was surprised this week though to see so many fully open male catkins & producing lots of pollen too!!!! #wildflowerhour

Flowering on the #WinterSolstice, Annual Meadow-grass (Poa annua) blooms year-round thanks to its hybrid origin. One parent is the cold-tolerant alpine P. supina, the other is P. infirma from warm Mediterranean areas. You’ll be almost guaranteed to find it on the #NewYearPlantHunt #Wildflowerhour

Common Dandelion - Taraxacum officinale a welcome ray of sunshine in the midst of winter. #Wildflowerhour

Wildflowers found this weekend to celebrate the #WinterSolstice: Dandelion, snowdrop, periwinkle, cyclamen, white dead-nettle, daisy, dog violet, hogweed, female hazel flower, and male hazel catkins. #WildflowerHour #TheWinter10

Day 23 of my botanical #adventcalendar is the diminutive yet delightful Alpine Gentian - an extremely rare alpine, perhaps now only found on Ben Lawers, and assessed as Endangered on the new #GBRedList Is there a better flower colour than gentian blue? No, there is not... #wildflowerhour

It's not every day you find a new native species for Scotland! Day 22 of my botanical #adventcalendar is Shiny Glasswort - a nationally rare plant never recorded in Scotland before Growing in a salt pan on the Forth Estuary - branching pattern, colour and flower size the ID clues #wildflowerhour

My most exciting Irish plant of 2025 was the mystical-looking Sword-leaved Helleborine (Cephalanthera longifolia). But my favourite? papery lamb's-tails of Cyperus Sedge (Carex pseudocyperus). What a lovely year's worth of plants 😊🪻🌾🌳 #botany @wildflowerhour.bsky.social @bsbibotany.bsky.social

Not sure whether to take part in #NewYearPlantHunt? Worrying that your #WildFlowerID skills won't be up to scratch? No problem: just use one of our spotter sheets for your area: bsbi.org/take-part/ac... Download & print it, or find all the spotter sheet plants on a ticklist on the #BSBIRecordingApp!

Dryopteris affinis s.s on my St Stephen’s Day walk yesterday. Every day is a good day for some fernology I am pretty confident with this one @bsbiireland.bsky.social @bsbibotany.bsky.social #ferns #botany

Great piece on the work by the passionate scientist @darrenreidy.bsky.social to save the seed from Ireland’s endangered plants. “Noah’s Ark for plants: The man in charge of logging every native seed in Ireland” #botany #conservation #biodiversity #SpeirGorm jrnl.ie/6910184

Really enjoying #wildflowerhour tonight. There’s something particularly plucky and cheerful about plants blooming on the shortest day of the year #wintersolstice

What's the perfect #ChristmasGift for the plant-lover in your life? If they're not already #BSBImembers, how about a year's membership of @bsbibotany.bsky.social? Choose a printed membership pack, posted to your loved one, or a digital pack pinging into their Inbox on Christmas Day. bsbi.org/gift

Around the village hedgerows for #thewinter10 Some new things in flower this week. See ALT text for details. #wildflowerhour @wildflowerhour.bsky.social

#Wildflowerhour I think this is Cow Parsley, Anthriscus sylvestris: bracteoles are oval and pointed, leaves are finely cut and the stems are furrowed. Happy to be corrected. Path edge Tintern, Monmouthshire. #WildflowerID Thank you.

Montane willow scrub is 1 of our most threatened habitats, with only a few 100 ha remaining throughout Scotland Finding this nationally rare Net-leaved Willow in Perthshire was a fine reward for one of the wettest day's botanising I've ever endured! Botanical #adventcalendar Day 17 #wildflowerhour

Happy winter solstice to all our lovely #Wildflowerhour folk, how heartening to think that from this point we will now have a little more light each day!✨Hope you have a wonderful, peaceful Christmas however you choose to spend it & see you again next Sunday! Happy flower spotting 😘

Local, near my garden in Coleraine for #thewinter10 for #WildFlowerHour Just TWO (Daisy & Quaking Grass with anthers!!), fingers crossed for the New Year Plant Hunt #NYPH #BSBI at #RoeValley Friday 2nd Jan 10-12 @wildflowerhour.bsky.social @bsbibotany.bsky.social @bsbiireland.bsky.social

Hopeful male Hazel (Corylus avellana) catkins getting their pollen ready early, in chilly North Leitrim. (Sharing these photos for the sheer unlikeliness of them coming out at all...trembly tree, gale force winds, flappy phone case and the wrong glasses 🤣) @bsbibotany.bsky.social #wildflowerhour

Galium verum | lady's bedstraw - learn about this incredibly stylish wildflower for contemporary designs www.wildway.info/p/galium-ver...

So, what do we do with the #NewYearPlantHunt data that 1000s of #BSBImembers & supporters have collected over the past decade? 1 example: we joined forces with @metoffice.gov.uk to investigate correlations between rising temperatures & your plant records. Initial results: bsbi.org/about/news/l...

A brilliant day out to walk off the mince pies and see what you can spot! ❄️🌼❄️🌼❄️ @mikekally.bsky.social @npwsireland.bsky.social @cleancoasts.bsky.social #Botany #NewYearPlantHunt @zoedev.bsky.social @phoebeobrien.bsky.social @ollysflora123.bsky.social @tcddublin.bsky.social

For our first event of 2026 we are participating in the @bsbiireland.bsky.social New Year Plant Hunt! 🌱🔍 💚Suitable for beginners and experts alike 📍For our inaugural IWT New Year Plant Hunt, we will go to North Bull Island in Dublin. 🔗 iwt.ie/events #NewYearPlantHunt #BSBI #IrishWildlifeTrust

🚶‍♀️ 🚶🏻‍♂️ #Binham #Norfolk Yarrow against the backdrop of the 13th Century nave of Binham Priory. #WildflowerHour

Winter Heliotrope, Petasites pyrenaicus, (with added Swan) at Kelsey Park in Beckenham. #WildflowerHour

Sweet Violet making the most of the now less than unusual December warmth in Lincolnshire. #WildflowerHour

Only 11 more sleeps til Christmas, so here are 11 flowers for #thewinter10, from a local churchyard (and a bonus ladybird). 🎄 White Dead-nettles between gravestones seemed apt. Also loving the catkins (male Hazel flowers), Wild Strawberry and Ivy-leaved Toadflax. Rest in Alt text. #wildflowerhour

Cherry Plum, Prunus cerasifera, looking bonny at Beddington Farmlands this week. #WildflowerHour

Red dead nettle by the motorway. #WildflowerHour

Teeny tiny flowers of Butcher's Broom, with a bonus Ladybird! Spotted in woodland near Plumpton Green, East Sussex #wildflowerhour

Periwinkle, long naturalised in local woodland, Plumpton Green. #wildflowerhour

Bush vetch still in flower in the Chilterns yesterday #wildflowerhour

Are you interested in learning more about identifying plant pathogens in the wild? Come along to my webinar at 7pm on the 27th of January! bsbi.org/take-part/ev... #FungiFriends #WildPlantDisease

Local, near my garden in Coleraine for #thewinter10 for #WildFlowerHour Just TWO (Periwinkle & Quaking Grass with anthers!!) but fingers crossed for the New Year Plant Hunt #NYPH #BSBI at #RoeValley Friday 2nd Jan 10-12 @wildflowerhour.bsky.social @bsbibotany.bsky.social @bsbiireland.bsky.social

What an early female Hazel flower! Worth a revisit for @bsbibotany.bsky.social's #NewYearPlantHunt ?😃 ❄️ @wildflowerhour.bsky.social @irishwoodlandtrust.bsky.social @mikekally.bsky.social @cedar-ni.bsky.social #Botany #WinterPlants @irishwildlifetrust.bsky.social