Sunday book review: Wildlife of Middlewick Ranges Publisher: Colchester NHS Review: markavery.info/2026/05/17/s... Middlewick Ranges qualifies as an SSSI yet is not being progressed for designation by @naturalengland.bsky.social. Great book - failure of state nature conservation! #colchester

Another of the many treasures of Cambridge Botanic Gardens, the Boxleaf Azara, a native of Argentina and Chile. Salicaceae family.

More from the fabulous Cambridge Botanic Garden - Purple Toothwort, Lathraea clandestina.

Chamaecyparis lawsoniana, Lawson’s Cypress in Cambridge Botanic Garden this week.

Pyrus calleryana “Chanticleer”, the Callery Pear in bloom in Cambridge Botanic Garden.

The enthusiasm of most billionaire media outlets in the US and UK for Trump’s illegal assault on Iran is another reminder of how deranged, perverse and frankly psychopathic these organisations are.

Snowdrops!

Country diary: A palace of sunlight on a short winter’s day

#PDJ183 - Je vous avais déjà parlé de Wolffia globosa ? Voici un nouveau format pour la découvrir ! C'est l'une des plus petites plantes à fleurs du monde !

Armillaria cepistipes (I think!) for #wildflowerhour

Amanita citrina, False Death-cap for #wildflowerhour

Ilex aquifolia, Holly for #wildflowerhour

Crab Apples! Malus sylvestris for #wildfruithour, sorry #wildflowerhour

Sorbus torminalis, Wild Service for #wildflowerhour

Geranium dissecting, Cut-leaf Geranium for #wildflowerhour

Bidens frondosa, Beggarticks for #wildflowerhour

Hydrocotyle ranunculoides, Floating Pennywort for #wildflowerhour

Epipactis helleborine, Broad-leaved Helleborine for #wildflowerhour

Heather for #wildflowerhour. You don’t get much in Essex! Tiptree Heath.

Wood Sage for #wildflowerhour. Tiptree, Essex

Common Centaury, small but mighty! Tiptree Heath, Essex. #wildflowerhour

I don’t really do favourites so here is Water Horsetail #wildflowerhour #favouriteplant

@wildflowerhour.bsky.social Sneezewort, Achillea ptarmica. Not particularly hairy but may help alleviate the sneezes caused by getting too near to hairy plants for #wildflowerhour #hairyplants!

It's probably fine.

Wild Candytuft, Iberis amara on south facing chalk grassland, South Oxfordshire. #wildflowerhour

Dropwort, Filipendula vulgaris almost outnumbering the orchids at Aston Rowant NNR. #wildflowerhour

Small-flowered Sweet-briar, Rosa micrantha, on chalk grassland. Aston Rowant NNR, South Oxfordshire. #wildflowerhour. Not #urbanplants but very close to the M40!

Wild Candytuft, Iberia amara. Something of a Chilterns specialist. Aston Rowant NNR, Oxfordshire.

Squinancywort (cool name!), Asperula cynanchica a chalk grassland specialist. Aston Rowant NNR, Oxfordshire.

Musk Thistle, Carduus nutans on chalk grassland at Aston Rowant NNR.

Lizard Orchid, Himantoglossum hircinum near the River Colne in Colchester. We managed to save it from the council strimmers.

Honeysuckle (lovely name), Lonicera periclymen adorning the hedges along the Colne near Colchester.

Hemlock water-dropwort, Oenanthe crocata, common along the tidal Colne in Colchester.

Self-heal, Prunella vulgaris. Its name refers to its traditional use in medicine. For example, it was apparently used for the treatment of diptheria.

Fox-and-cubs, Pilosella aurantiaca on an un-mown roadside verge in Colchester. The ‘fox’ is the open flower, surrounded by the ‘cubs’, the unopened flower buds.

Important piece by Helena Horton on Lodge Hill and its nightingales, a place that I wrote a chapter about in Irreplaceable because of its significance - together with the idiocy of biodiversity offsetting for such a unique and valuable wildlife site. www.theguardian.com/environment/...

It was on top of a bank if that counts for #highupplants Subterannean Clover for #wildflowerhour

Perfoliate Alexanders, Smyrnium perfoliatum. Self-seeded in my garden from an unknown source.

Flowers of the Red Oak, Quercus rubra. The male flowers in pendulous racemes, the female flowers just visible in the leaf axils of the new shoot.

An interesting one which appears to be Pyrus calleryana. An amenity planting but it has been left to look after itself so sort of wild! #wildflowerhour #treeflowers

Ash for #wildflowerhour #treeflowers

Goat Willow for #wildflowerhour #treefllowers

Blackthorn of course. It can form a tree. #wildflowerhour #treeflowers

Gean, wild cherry, for #wildflowerhour #treefllowers

Oak for #wildflowerhour #treeflowers

Willow spp for #wildflowerhour #treeflowers

Norway Maple for #wildflowerhour #treeflowers

Bird Cherry for #wildflowerhour