Some good news. London is meeting legal limits for toxic NO2 pollution for the first time – almost 200 years earlier than predicted – following the Mayor’s "world leading air pollution policies," City Hall announces. The Ultra Low Emissions Zone - and similar policies - really do work.

A large ragweed plant Ambrosia artemisiifolia, suspiciously near a bird-feeder. #wildflowerhour

Hereabouts there’s a (small) chance of finding Spiny Restharrow so it becomes a habit to touch any Restharrow plant you see. Usually you just get an unpleasant smell, but very occasionally you also get a painful spike! #wildflowerhour

4/ Using evidence gathered from old postcards, maps and the accounts of shepherds and botanists, I want to rebuild a picture of the chalk downland that existed until the 1940s - and in doing so, help efforts to restore it. Please get involved here: ghostsofchalkcountry.org/2025/09/14/h...

2/ THE GHOSTS OF CHALK COUNTRY will be a book about the ecology of our chalk downs, but it will also be about ancient fertility rites, shepherds, soldiers, organic fascists, pagan activists & English identity. It's also a project to resurrect the ghosts: ghostsofchalkcountry.org/2025/09/14/i...

Good to refind skullcap by the Delf Stream, Sandwich. #wildflowerhour

Find of the day in an East Kent ditch…. a water stick insect Ranatra linearis.

In a summer spent bog-wading along Kentish ditches, two species stand out. Greater bladderwort, too inaccessible for a photo, and tubular water-dropwort. #wildflowerhour #favouriteplant

Greater bladderwort and narrow-leaved water-plantain north of Deal, in the same ditches as recorded in 1982.

Botanical challenges part II - livestock in the field

A young adder close in a municipal park in Dover.

Impressive reedbeds created as part of housing development by the Great (Kent) Stour. @chequertree.bsky.social

Teaching the next generation about Himalayan balsam - noli-tangere #wildflowerhour

Nothing to see here. Move along.

On the same day in the Telegraph:

One of a host of autumn ladies’-tresses popping up under the cannons of Walmer Castle #wildflowerhour

Sea aster just starting to flower in front of the White Cliffs of Kingsdown. #wildflowerhour

A strange call erupted from a nearby garden and had to be investigated- eventually shows itself to be a Sudan Golden Sparrow - presumably escaped from somewhere. Or, given the racket it makes, shooed out of the house.

Is it me, or is common fleabane having a great year? #wildflowerhour

Curdles and cream, and fireweed #wildflowerhour

An unusual pairing of nettle-leaved bellflower and Jersey cudweed - accompanied by Blake, Defoe & Bunyan at Bunhill burial ground in London. #wildflowerhour

Spiked water-milfoil thriving in a pond created by Sandwich Bird Observatory #wildflowerhour

Strawberry clover looking luscious for #wildflowerhour

Rock sea-lavender, sea couch and golden samphire #bythesea #wildflowerhour

Carline thistle glistening like gold on the beach #wildflowerhour

Impressive double century from Ben Compton @kentcricket.co.uk

Technology for using ethanol as biofuel has apparently stalled, so the US has a vast unusable surplus. The recent US trade deals with the UK & EU both commit them to buy vast amounts with zero tariffs, threatening their own industries, including farmers.

When he learns that oil, ethanol, and natural gas subsidies exist he is going to be so surprised

A good count of red-hemp nettle plants on a @plantlifeuk.bsky.social reintroduction field-margin in East Kent, rather late for #wildflowerhour

What a cute plant - field woundwort #wildflowerhour

Dave & Paul exhibiting teamwork, and Russ found a wasp spider!

Southern Water, I hate you, & I hate the parasitic international 'investment' funds who own you & profit from the disgusting mess you've made of this tiny little river which I love. Pic shows a filthy East Stour River, Kent, several miles downstream of sewage release. Discharging 4 hrs & counting.

Hello Gallant, I’m Shaggy!

Common toadflax on Walmer beach. “A charming plant, despite its name” - Jocelyn Brooke #wildflowerhour

When Restharrow looks like this, we can almost forgive its smell. #wildflowerhour

Male and female wasp spiders - awaiting their Coldplay moment.

Thank you Ed Milliband, for speaking clearly on climate change and the UK's objectives. parliamentlive.tv/event/index/... www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Hairy finger-grass for #hairyplants #Wildflowerhour Found in the backstreets #urbanplants

A scratchy viper’s bugloss on Walmer beach for #hairyplants #Wildflowerhour

This is so wonderful. Seeing the PM and Chancellor chatting with the French President about Larry the Cat and his social media posts!

President Macron, "Have the problems, the illegal migration problems of Great Britain from 9 years ago been resolved by Brexit?" "No" "British people were lied to that the problem was the European Union"

#urbanplants keep on giving! Oak-leaved goosefoot Chenopodium glauca in the gutter at Walmer, first for east Kent. @bsbibotany.bsky.social

Big brute great green-bush cricket on the allotment in Walmer - seemed an unusual location, surrounded by houses and roads.

@trevorthebotanist.bsky.social so we bought your Urban Plants book and this is how we now spend our evenings. Finding chia, hairy finger-grass and plenty of cockspur.

Go on! Take the bus!

Climbing corydalis under the protection of a herd of alpacas, in Northumberland. They don't seem to like the taste. #wildflowerhour

Glorious marsh helleborines in the dune slacks of Holy Island, on a searing hot day last week. #HelleborineChallenge #WildflowerHour

Really lucky to bump into a knowledgeable local on my quick tourist trip to Holy Island - 10 spikes of the endemic Lindisfarne helleborine Epipactis sancta. #HelleborineChallenge #WildflowerHour