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

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...

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

Things I'm doing instead of studying.... #rigidheddleloom #weaving #LastMinuteChristmasPresents

Help us unlock the Plants of the Past, by supporting volunteers to digitise decades of paper records & inform C21st science! @biggive.bsky.social From #GivingTuesday to 9 Dec, we have £10K in matched funds to unlock: every donation, however small, will be doubled: donate.biggive.org/campaign/a05...

Today, we learned about conifer identification in the grounds of Castlewellan Forest Park's stunning walled garden. Thanks to Charles Shier for such an educational day! @bsbiireland.bsky.social @bsbibotany.bsky.social

Today as part of the Botanical Skills Northern Ireland project, Mel Flexen introduced a group to the botany and ecology of lowland raised bogs in Peatlands Park, Armagh. Plenty to see, even at this tine of year!

Best time to join the growing ranks of #BSBImembers? In October to get 15 months of benefits for price of 12: that's when 100s of people inc @markavery.bsky.social & @alunsalt.bsky.social joined! 2nd best time? In November, to enjoy 14 months of benefits: bsbipublicity.blogspot.com/2025/10/bsbi...

Thanks to all who joined us in Oxfird Island to celebrate #NPMS10! Between talks, we practiced Wildflower ID, indicators knowledge, hedgerow surveys, and @organicbotanic.bsky.social took us through botanical photography using a camera phone!

I'm delighted that we have a whole range of talks from our Northern Ireland Botanical Skills Project taking place this winter on Tuesday evenings. Want to learn more about conifers? Rushes? Clubmosses? Hawthorns? Plant Pathogenic Fungi? ROBOTS?? See them all here: bsbi.org/botanical-sk...

Want to up your #WildFlowerID game this winter? We just launched our Winter Webinar programme! 7-8pm, every Tuesday from 4 Nov - 10 Feb. Thanks to funding from @daera-ni.gov.uk, these 10 great plant ID webinars are FREE for all of you to attend! Programme & booking links: bsbi.org/botanical-sk...

Want to learn more about the National Plant Monitoring Scheme #npms? Join our 10th anniversary celebrations on volunteer day in Oxford Island, Co Armagh on 25th October (www.tickettailor.com/events/botan...), or in Glenarm, Co Antrim on 6th November (www.tickettailor.com/events/botan...)

Dog walk sightings #fungi #mushrooms

Yesterday, NI Training Officers Kim and Jo led two groups on a tree Identification walk through Corbie Wood in Lagan Valley Regional Park, Belfast. We got to see the impressive 500-year old Belvoir Oak, amongst many other species of tree - and some beautiful fungi too!

Visited Castlewellan, Co Down, and saw the multistemmed Sequoiadendron giganteum, a redwood grown from seed brought back from California and planted as a single sapling in 1856. It sports an amazing 19 trunks and is absolutely mind-blowing!

Our annual membership special offer opens today! Join us this month & you'll enjoy 15 months of membership benefits for the price of 12. Those benefits are so numerous & fabulous you'll have to head over here to see them all: bsbipublicity.blogspot.com/2025/10/bsbi... Then join us! bsbi.org/join-us

I was delighted to see the Belvoir Oak yesterday during a visit to Lagan Valley yesterday. This stunning Oak is approx 500 years old, with an 8m girth. An ancient pollarded pedunculate oak, now missing most of its upper branches and its heartwood, it's still putting on a show and producing acorns.

On Saturday, we held a Northern Ireland Recorders Meeting in the Lough Neagh Discovery Centre. From far and wide, recorders came to learn about willow identification and hybrids, then roamed the site, willow-hunting. @bsbibotany.bsky.social @mikekally.bsky.social

Yesterday, we visited @ulsterwildlife.bsky.social 's working farm reserve in Fermanagh with the NIEA Habitats team, carefully exploring around the Marsh Fritillary caterpillar webs in the grasslands, and combing the woods for Yellow Birds Nest Orchid.

On Thursday, NIEA joined us in Fermanagh to study horsetails and hunted for Lesser Twayblade in Lough Nevar Forest Park, as part of our Botanical Skills NI project.

Fantastic views of Scotland today for Glenarm Wildlife Group NPMS volunteers carrying out the second NPMS survey of the summer with Jo BSBI Training Officer. The cows had already visited plot 4! @bsbibotany.bsky.social

🌍🌱🌾🪴🌳🌼🪾Second semi-final Aberdeen 16 versus Eden Project 13 points, so final is Aberdeen versus Plymouth. Botanical University Challenge #BUC2025 Starts 16:00 today 20 August.

I'm at the @bucbotany.bsky.social final today and it's been an absolute nail-biter. Always humbling to see plant ID questions juxtaposed with questions about horticulture, enzymes and genetics. Congratulations to Aberdeen for having the all-round skills to win it!

A quick visit to the allotment for some tomatoes and remembered my onions and garlic hadn't been plaited up. A few are starting to bolt, so we'll use those first.

A close look at #BlackMedick #Fabaceae #Botany #Wildflower #Flower #Plant #Nature #PlantID #Flowers please help the channel bring another in the series by Like Share or Subscribing on YOU TUBE Coming soon Wild Carrot Teasel Narrow leaved Ragwort & more www.youtube.com/@wildliferan...

100s of you across Britain & Ireland bought a print copy of the latest #BSBIHandbook, Brambles of Scotland (many of the 56 species occur outside Scotland!) Now you can buy it as a standalone eBook bsbi.org/publications... Bramble ID on the go? Holidaying in Scotland? You'll want this eBook! Only £10

Took part in the #BigButterflyCount 2025 yesterday. Recorded the gatekeeper, meadow brown, lots of speckled woods, the large white and a single ringlet.

And that's a wrap, folks! Thanks to everyone who joined us over 4 days of bramble field outings in Northern Ireland with Brambles of Scotland author Angus Hannah and Rubus referee David Earl. We're planning some general rubus training for you to prepare for more exploration next summer!

We visited Slieve Foye in County Louth today to learn about the acidic and base-rich habitats present. As part of the Irish Grasslands Project, Ciaran taught us to ID some of the grasses and sedges vegetatively, always a challenge! @bsbibotany.bsky.social look at those views!

(Round-leaved?) Sundew and Lesser Clubmoss from Slieve Foye today, and Rock Samphire from Donabate beach earlier this week. Plus a gorgeous Common Carder Bee on a Spear Thistle, a late entry for #wildflowerhour !

Day 2 of our Botanical Skills bramble outings in Northern Ireland, this time in Peatlands Park in Armagh. In true botanical form, it took well over an hour to get out of the carpark... #rubus @bsbibotany.bsky.social

A fun first day of late season bramble hunting in County Tyrone today with @bsbiireland.bsky.social @bsbibotany.bsky.social

How can nature conservation in Britain lose sight of the species unique to our shores? In some cases, it’s a skills-gap. There are simply not many experts with the knowledge and experience to identify species in critical groups like hawkweeds and dandelions. 📷: Bertha's Dandelion

It’s the big day! After four years of research, writing and editing (and procrastination, terror and imposter syndrome), Endemic has now been released to the world.

Favourite plants for the Butterflies this week are Common Ragwort, Verbena bonariensis, Hemp Agrimony & Bramble #WildWebsWednesday

On Saturday BSBI Training Officer Jo led a NPMS Woodland training event in Glenarm Estate Nature Reserve. We saw ancient oaks, and learned indicator species for wet woodland. We also saw many Silver-washed Fritillary butterflies flying around. @bsbibotany.bsky.social @savebutterflies.bsky.social

Today @jen-farrar-bsbi-ni.bsky.social ran a beginner's fern workshop for @bsbiireland.bsky.social in Peatlands Park in Armagh where we found Royal fern, Male fern, Scaly male fern, Borrer's Scaly Male Fern, Common polypody, Lady fern, Hart's-tongue fern and Bracken.

Meanwhile....away from human world, son or daughter of allotment robin decided to help with the digging...

Epipactis palustris Marsh helleborine (en) Sumpf-Stendelwurz (de) kruštík bahenní (cz) [insect unknown] 02/07/2025 Czech Republic, České středohoří, Čeřeniště #HelleborineChallenge

My favourite encounter this week and the trickiest plant to find, Yellow Centaury, Cicendia filiformis on a Dorset heath #wildflowerhour

It's Sunday, it's 8pm so it must be #WildFlowerHour! Please share pix of any wild or naturalised plants you spotted in bloom last week across Britain & Ireland, especially any harebells for this week's @wildflowerhour.bsky.social #HarebellChallenge! Use #WildFlowerID if you need some ID help!

2 Butterflies seen in the garden (West Yorkshire). A Brimstone and what I think is a Green-veined white? #butterflies #insects

Here's a story for you all, about how - without really knowing what I was doing - I accidentally found a plant that had only ever been seen in Britain once before. @bsbibotany.bsky.social Here's a photo of it:

Plenty of gorgeous broad-leaved helleborine spotted today during a recce in Drumcairne Forest in #CountyTyrone #NorthernIreland @bsbiireland.bsky.social @bsbibotany.bsky.social #botany

Silver-washed fritillary in Crom, fermanagh this week #butterfly #biodiversity

Robert leading a fantastic day learning about sedges in Crom, Fermanagh as part of the @bsbiireland.bsky.social #BotanicSkillsProject #NorthernIreland. Beautiful weather and a fantastic location to boot! @bsbibotany.bsky.social

Today @jen-farrar-bsbi-ni.bsky.social led saltmarsh plant identification at St Cooey's Well in Newtownards. Highlights: Procumbent Pearlwort, Samphire, Sea-milkwort, English Stonecrop, Sea Lavender. #Botany @ulsterwildlife.bsky.social @bsbibotany.bsky.social @bsbiireland.bsky.social

Water Avens (Geum rivale), Evo Recreational Outdoor Area, Finland 02.07.2005 #evo #finland #nature #naturephotography #photography #flora #plant #plants #flower #flowers #valokuvataivas

Sounds about right 🧶 #knit

Grass glowing with light from the setting sun. #WildflowerHour #Grasses