Nice to see more #fungi appearing for #MushroomMonday #FungiFriends. 🔁 from top left, lots of Persistent Waxcaps, Pestle Puffball, Redlead Roundhead, a white Poisonpie with fascinating weeping gills and lastly centre, a beautiful blush Brittlegill - possibly The Flirt? 🤔☺️

A few wildflowers spotted for #WildflowerHour whilst out looking for mushrooms! 😃

At last #FungiFriends, my first waxcap of the season! Persistent Waxcap, Hygrocybe acutoconica 💛

I hadn’t seen it for a couple of years so it was extra special in early June to catch up with my #FavouritePlant! The gorgeous Mertensia maritima, commonly named Oysterplant, as the leaves taste like the fruits of the sea! Caithness #Wildflowerhour

For the last weekly challenge, we want to know what was your favourite plant that you’ve spotted from across Britain and Ireland this year? Share your pics for #wildflowerhour this Sunday 8-9pm using the hashtag #favouriteplant and we’ll celebrate it with you! 🥳🌿🌸

Just some teasel #SeedHeads from me this week. My husband came off his motorbike and broke his collarbone so only walks from home for the foreseeable! I was happy to see them though, they are so statuesque!! #WildflowerHour 🤎

Some wildflowers have seed heads that are truly spectacular! The challenge this week is to find some and then share your lovely pics for #WildflowerHour this Sunday 8-9pm using the hashtag #SeedHeads! Any wild or naturalised blooms you find too are of course always welcome!

It’s looking a bit like autumn! Plump, luscious fruits are brightening the hedgerows like vibrant jewels, beautiful, but can you identify them? This week find the fruits of wild plants, snap away & post your lovely pics for #wildflowerhour this Sunday 8-9pm using #fruits 🍒

It was the perfect day to visit Nob End SSSI (it really is called that 😆😂) to see how the Autumn Gentians were getting on. I had such a happy time admiring them, they were looking absolutely stunning in the glorious sunshine!💜 #WildflowerHour #GentianFamily #GentianFriend

Can you find a flowering member of the Gentian family or Gentianaceae, that’s the challenge this week. Post your finds for #WildflowerHour this Sunday 8-9pm using the hashtag #GentianFamily. Happy flower hunting!

Just my favourite Carline Thistles from me this week for the #DaisyFamily challenge. I love these so much especially the tiny purple flowers. I still think they look like spiky jam tarts though!😉😄 #wildflowerhour

There’s a huge patch of Common Fleabane in my local park which is looking glorious! I spent a bit of time staking it out but as it was warm everything was a bit too speedy! I did manage to catch up on this beautiful Painted Lady though 😍 #PollinatorPals #WildflowerHour

We had a proper old-fashioned day out #ByTheSea yesterday with ice cream & wildflowers galore! Clockwise from top right Carline Thistle, Eyebright, Harebell, the first Autumn Ladies Tresses, Sea Holly, Viper’s Bugloss, Ploughman’s Spikenard & a lighthouse!!! #WildflowerHour 🌊🍦

For the #DeadNettleFamily challenge the delightfully fuzzy-headed flowers of Black Horehound, Ballota nigra always look a bit confused to me! The flowers are so worth a closer inspection as they are prettily pencilled with delicate markings 😍 #WildflowerHour

New to me this week but because I’d seen it on #WildflowerHour I knew exactly what it was! 🥰 Duke of Argyll’s Tea Plant, Lycium barbarum casually growing from the walls of Runcorn Castle. Introduced from China and closely related to the Goji Berry, Lycium chinense.

Is there a wildflower more evocative of long summer days than the beautiful Harebell?! Campanula rotundifolia is of course also known as the Scottish Bluebell. The challenge this week is to see if you can find one for #Wildflowerhour! Share your pics this Sunday 8-9pm! 💙

Ghost Orchids Epipogium aphyllum in SE France this week. An awesome experience seeking out these enigmatic spirits and finding them in such abundance, in beautiful sub-alpine woods #wildflowerhour

Round-leaved Sundew, Co. Donegal. #hairyplants #wildflowerhour

It’s been so hot this week that I’ve been keeping in the shade. I’ve had good company though, lots of gorgeous Broad-leaved Helleborines!!! Thankfully they haven’t been chomped by deer this year! #WildflowerHour

Some are stellate, glandular, forked, simple or branched. What are? I hear you ask! Hairs! This week’s challenge is to find a hairy plant, the hirsuter the better and examine its trichomes! Post your bristly pics using the hashtag #hairyplants for #Wildflowerhour this Sunday 8-9pm

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.

Yay, a new orchidaceous tour from our friends @mariposanature.bsky.social! This one is led by the amazing @thenewgalaxy.bsky.social - the guy who refound the Ghost Orchid last summer: bsbi.org/ghost-orchid... So proud to have this great company as a #BSBICorporateSupporter

I adore this fascinating parasitic plant, it was so wonderful to see it again yesterday on the @mariposanature.bsky.social tour of Hutton Roof! It was looking absolutely pristine too! 🥰 Yellow Bird’s-nest, Monotropa hypopitys 💛 @thenewgalaxy.bsky.social #WildflowerHour

@wildflowerhour.bsky.social @botanybeck.bsky.social On Lundy, but have sloooow phone signal. Marsh Helleborine Braunton Burrows.

This is my favourite from a wonderful day with @mariposanature.bsky.social at Hutton Roof. Epipactis x schmalhausenii, the love child between Dark Red and Broad-leaved Helleborine. Isn’t it an absolute stunner!!!! 😍 #HelleborineChallenge #WildflowerHour @thenewgalaxy.bsky.social

An epic day at Hutton Roof with @thenewgalaxy.bsky.social First for me, hybrid between Dark Red & Broad-leaved Helleborine & the different colour forms of Epipactis atropurpureans! Also an absolute treat to catch up with some pristine Monotropa hypopitys!! #HelleborineChallenge #WildflowerHour

A brand new challenge this week!

I was spellbound by this amazing spectacle this afternoon! A mass of stunning Seaholly set within a golden carpet of Kidney Vetch & punctuated by hundreds of the beautiful purple-tinted spires of Seaholly Broomrape, Orobanche minor var. pseudoamethystea!!! Absolutely dazzling!🤩 #wildflowerhour

‘Sedges have edges, rushes are round, grasses have nodes right down to the ground’ This week’s challenge is to find a flowering sedge, grass or rush! Post your pics for #WildflowerHour this Sunday 8-9pm using the hashtag #GrassChallenge! 🌾

Popped by to see another of my favourite wildflowers today. It has no leaves and indeed it contains no chlorophyll! This super-cool botanical vampire - the Ivy Broomrape, Orobanche hederae, obtains all of its nutrients from the Ivy plant that it parasitises! #ParasiticPlants #wildflowerhour

With warmer temperatures forecast for the end of the week hopefully you’ll appreciate a watery theme for this week’s challenge! Find wild or naturalised aquatic plants in bloom and share for #wildflowerhour this Sunday 8-9pm using the hashtag #AquaticPlants 💦🌱

Meadow Crane’s-bill looking absolutely glorious this week for #Wildflowerhour 💙

It’s not often you see a Common Spotted Orchid with a brick backdrop but I can include this little beauty for the #UrbanPlants challenge as most excitingly it has seeded itself in my garden! 😍 #Wildflowerhour

Last week our good friend @trevorthebotanist.bsky.social launched his new book #UrbanPlants so we thought it would be a great theme for #WildflowerHour! Let’s celebrate our wild urban flowers for this week’s challenge! Share your finds this Sunday 8-9pm!

My absolute favourite 💙 Mertensia maritima, Oysterplant Such a joy to see this gorgeous plant again this week! Caithness #WildflowerHour

Can you find a wild or naturalised (like the Crown Vetch pictured) member of the Pea Family? That’s the challenge this week from #WildflowerHour. Share your finds for the magic hour this Sunday 8-9pm. Hap(pea) flower hunting! 🫛😀

Some of my favourites from today, left pic from top left, Spring Squill, Sea Milkwort, Grass of Parnassus, Northern Marsh Orchid. Right pic, thousands of Mountain Everlasting 😍 & top right lovely to meet Sea Arrowgrass, Triglochin maritima #WildflowerHour

Orkney is so beautiful! A lovely walk to Yesnaby Sea Stack. Lots and lots of wonderful wildflowers along the way, carpets of Thrift and Kidney Vetch. Spotted loads of Primula scotia plants but sadly none in flower, think I’m too late but will keep looking 👀 #wildflowerhour

It’s that time of year when social media just seems to be full of gorgeous orchid pics! The challenge this week is to see if you can find one! Share your orchidaceous finds for #WildflowerHour this Sunday 8-9pm using the hashtag #OrchidChallenge. 📸 William Keble Martin

It was wonderful to spend time with these gorgeous beauties! Greater Butterfly Orchids, Platanthera chlorantha, looking absolutely splendid & making a proper #WildFlowerShow for #WildflowerHour! Finding a Lesser Butterfly, Platanthera bifolia, tucked in amongst them made my day too!! 🥰

There are those among us who share my delight at the concept of Ant Gardens. Others who see this would say 'It's just grass, innit.' Some see only a barren, sheep-struck wasteland. But come back in July .. @amiesphilip.bsky.social @naturelark.bsky.social @botanybeck.bsky.social #AntGardens 🌱

When I planted this nursery grown Common Spotted Orchid in my garden five years ago I was really hoping that it would seed itself. Tonight I’m over-the-moon as not only have I found two self-sown plants growing in my patio pots, they’ve also got flower buds!! 🥰🥰🥰 #orchids #wildflowers

It’s the #ChelseaFlowerShow2025 this week so why don’t we have a #WildFlowerShow for #WildflowerHour? Find wildflowers or combinations of several wildflower species looking absolutely spectacular & share your pics this Sunday 8-9pm! I wonder, if there will be a best-in-show?😉🏆

Some lovely finds along the Sandstone trail for #WildflowerHour this week. My favourite patch of Common Cow-wheat is doing really well! Beautiful Greater Stitchwort & Red Campion for the #PinkFamily challenge, first of the Foxgloves & a beautiful combination of Bluebells & Climbing Corydalis 🥰

Poterium sanguisorba, Salad Burnet, invert associates: A long-lived, deep-rooting, winter-green perennial, flowers May–September, providing nectar & pollen for bees & other pollinators. It also supports 21 species of invertebrates as a larval host. 📷 Dr. Thomé, Flora von Deutschland 1885 🌱

Campion, Chickweed, Ragged Robin, Sandwort, Stitchwort and Mouse-ear are just some of the lovely members of the Pink Family or Caryophyllaceae! Find one blooming for this week’s challenge & share for #WildflowerHour this Sunday 8-9pm using the hashtag #PinkFamily 🌸

@saocousins.bsky.social @holnicotenh.bsky.social @christhorogood.bsky.social @irishrainforest.bsky.social @botanybeck.bsky.social @drrjwarren.bsky.social @stevecobbin.bsky.social

Breaking down wasn’t in today’s plans!!!! We were escorted off the motorway to a lay-by to await the AA. Still, it wasn’t all bad, I followed a meandering path lined with billowing hawthorn & accompanied by a cacophony of birdsong, I whiled away the time spotting a few blooms for #WildflowerHour 🥰

Heath, Wood, Wall, Germander, Ivy-leaved, Speedwells are popping up all over! The challenge this week is to find one and see if you can identify it. Share your pics for #wildflowerhour this Sunday 8-9pm using the hashtag #speedwell. Don’t forget our Speedwells crib sheet! 😉 ⬇️

Not so much #HighUpPlants as #PlantsWithAView. I love this place, a spectacular location to see Green-winged Orchids and just look at that amazing view!!!! #WildflowerHour