A duo of nice #ferns from yesterday's trip: Parsley Fern (Cryptogramma crispa) and Green Spleenwort (Asplenium viride) 🌿

After 40 years of botany I finally became a rock-rose completist with these Spotted Rock-rose on Anglesey. A bonus Sphaerophoria scripta hoverfly joined in.I didn't recognise this as Spotted Rock-rose until I looked closely. The spots can be almost invisible to the untrained eye. #wildflowerhour

Many of our volunteering opportunities are open to all, but we offer even more options for #BSBImembers who can apply to join a committee. Events & Comms committee organises activities & events eg #NewYearPlantHunt. Skills & Training Committee focuses on #BotanyForEveryone. bsbi.org/about/people...

Nice to catch up with my favourite nondescript, tiddly and generally overlooked horsetail today. 📸 Variegated Horsetail (Equisetum variegatum) #pteridophytes

Another new one for me today was Horseshoe Vetch (Hippocrepis comosa). A lovely little thing, though the gatecrashing grass was most unwelcome 😂

An entirely new plant for me on today's trip with some lovely Mountain Avens (Dryas octopetala). Well worth the uphill struggle in the rain! 🌧️

Wall to wall Globeflower (Trollius europaeus) today in Teesdale. Heaven! #botany

A lovely Great Horsetail (Equisetum telmateia) from today's wander. Not quite a fern, but it'll do for #fernfriday 🌿

Annual Beard-grass (Polypogon monspeliensis) might just be one of my favourite non-native grasses. Plenty of it lighting up the terraces of Heaton at the moment. #botany

An interesting #pavementplant from my wander to the allotment today - Trifolium repens 'Purpurescens' I think. Not everyday I pause to photograph White Clover 😂

Now is a great time to start looking out for ladybirds as they become more active!🐞 Recording ladybirds on NHSN's North East Ladybird Spot, on iRecord and iNaturalist can further increase our knowledge and understanding of these invertebrates.👇 www.nhsn.org.uk/the-north-ea... ©️Chris Wren

I'm excited to be leading another 2-day botanical tour of Lindisfarne with @greenwingstours.bsky.social later this month! A beautiful corner of #Northumberland, a fantastic range of orchids, and plenty of other Holy Island specialities - what's not to like? greenwings.co/our-holidays... #botany

It's #VolunteerWeek so a chance to thank & celebrate all the volunteers who contribute to our Society's success: Our c5K #BSBImembers Our c200 #BSBICountyRecorders & c100 expert Referees We have a wide range of volunteering opportunities to suit all fellow plant-lovers: bsbi.org/about/people...

Two Common Cow-wheat plants in oak woodland by Loch Lomond. The left has a uniformly deep yellow corolla and is var. hians, the right has the corolla becoming paler towards the base and is the normal form Var. hians is a widespread but under-recorded western variant - one to look out for!

Globeflower (Trollius europaeus) is reasonably common in the uplands of the North East, but a rare sight in the lowlands. These beauties absolutely made my day, blooming in a tiny fragment of wet meadow beside the River Blyth. #wildflowers

Fabulous fortuitous find on Quarryhouse Moor, Northumberland, yesterday, literally between my feet as I sat on the edge of the car seat putting my boots on… a new site for Moonwort and my first in the county #jammy #WildFlowerHour @wildflowerhour.bsky.social @bsbibotany.bsky.social

Thrift (Armeria maritima) looking lovely today complete with bonus Painted Lady. #wildflowerhour

The beautiful Bee x Fly hybrid orchid Ophrys x peitzschii growing with both parents this weekend. (Ophrys apifera x O. insectifera). #wildflowerhour @ukorchids.bsky.social

Spring Squill (Scilla verna) looking a tad dishevelled on the coast today. Still, a rather lovely little plant. #wildflowerhour

Tentatively leaning towards Early Marsh-orchid (Dactylorhiza incarnata) for these but very happy to be corrected. They certainly stood out among the masses of D. purpurella 👀 #orchids

Some lovely displays of Purple Milk-vetch (Astragalus danicus) from today's coastal walk. #wildflowerhour

Wood Barley (Hordelymus europaeus) flowering a little earlier than usual at one of it's few local sites. Always a nice one to see. #botany

Three alien grasses growing within metres of each other on a Newcastle street today: Annual Beard-grass (Polypogon monspeliensis), Water Bent (Polypogon viridis) and Greater Quaking-grass (Briza maxima). An eclectic trio! #botany

The UK’s strangest avian couple at the Long Nanny, Northumberland this morning - the female American Black Tern with the same male Arctic Tern she bred (unsuccessfully) with in 2024. A small nest scrape but no eggs as yet. #NEbirding #rarebirdsUK

Don’t want to jinx it, but I think I may have finally succeeded in growing my first ferns from spores! 🌿 I’ve never been the most patient person, so waiting almost 12 months for fronds to appear has definitely been a challenge… 📸 Brittle Bladder-fern, Lemon-scented & Maidenhair Spleenwort #ferns

Another annual milestone out of the way with the year's first Bee Orchid (Ophrys apifera) blooming in a Tyneside industrial estate. Always a joy 😍 #orchids

Rigid Buckler-fern (Dryopteris submontana) looking well, pretty rigid, against the backdrop of an old limestone quarry yesterday. #ferns

Lots of Equisetum fun this week. E. sylvaticum and pratense growing in abundance along the river Tees. Earlier in the week on Anglesey with E x robertsii and E. font-querii and their parents all growing in one area forming a bewildering array of forms. #wildflowerhour

The Bird’s-foot Trefoil, Lotus corniculatus was looking absolutely spectacular on my walk yesterday! It was impossible to take a photo without a bee! This plant supports 130 invertebrate species so for me it’s definitely worthy of best in show for this week’s #WildflowerShow #Wildflowerhour

When in Rome and all that… Having escaped to Cumbria for the day, it felt like the perfect opportunity to head off in search of a few more botanical goodies. Best of all was a huge population of Bird’s-eye Primrose (Primula farinosa). #wildflowerhour

It feels like every time I see Moonwort it has either been sheeped, slugged or stood on, so you can probably imagine my delight at finding this perky specimen on today’s trip! 😍 #ferns

Just a few of the hundreds of Early Purple Orchids (Orchis mascula) seen on today's trip. #wildflowerhour

24/5/26 #Cumbria - Hundreds of Fly #Orchids sitting pretty in the sunshine at this disused limestone quarry site on Morecambe Bay @bsbibotany.bsky.social #wildflowerhour

A few more common #ferns from today's trip into Westmorland. 📸 Adder's-tongue, Hard Shield-fern, Maidenhair Spleenwort & Wall-rue

A selection of lovely limestone #ferns from today's jaunt to Great Asby Scar - a rather long drive but worth it! 📸 Hart's-tongue, Rigid Buckler-fern, Green Spleenwort & Limestone Fern

Ligustrum vulgare, Wild Privet associates. Hedgerow, scrub & woodland edge, largely lowland, but widely naturalised as a garden escape, & relic of cultivation. Prefers well-drained, calcareous or base-rich soils. Larval host for 51 sp of invert. 📷 Amédée Masclef, Atlas des plantes de France. 1891

A moment of appreciation for a lovely patch of Early-purple Orchid (Orchis mascula) spotted on today's walk in the Ovingham area. Not one I see very often living in Newcastle... #wildflowers

Moonwort, Botrychiem lunaria. One of my favourite plants.

Downy Willow growing on crags on Ben Lomond, Stirlingshire. The handful of bushes remaining at this site, high on ledges out of reach of browsers, are all female - making the population functionally extinct. @n-t-s.bsky.social has collected male plants from nearby to introduce in a rescue bid

The highlight of today's outing was a tad green but really happy to finally see a convincing example of Upland Enchanter's-nightshade (Circaea x intermedia). We checked the hairs! #botany

Wood Stitchwort (Stellaria nemorum) from today's woodland wander. Not the most eye-catching of plants but scarce enough to justify a few 📸

A few nice patches of Oak Fern (Gymnocarpium dryopteris) from today's hike. Always a nice one to stumble across. #ferns

Thankfully, the Early-purple Orchids (Orchis mascula) were looking a tad more impressive than the previous species... #wildflowers

Prepare to be significantly underwhelmed! A rather small and unimpressive Bird's-nest Orchid (Neottia nidus-avis) spotted on today's walk along the River Allen. Still, a rare plant in the county... 👀 #orchids

Another annual milestone ticked off today with my first Northern Marsh-orchid (Dactylorhiza purpurella) of the year flowering on a grotty demolition site. #wildflowers

\o/ Available now on Talking Bat Podcast \o/ Brilliant interview with Sarah Whild, chatting about her newly published book: The Biological Recording Handbook Once you finish listening to Sarah, check out all the other brilliant people we have spoken to batability.podbean.com/e/talking-bo...

A few more familiar woodland plants from today's wander in Teesdale. 📸 Bugle, Early-purple Orchid, Goldilocks Buttercup, Yellow Pimpernel, Bluebell, Wood Crane's-bill, Dog-violet, Alternate-leaved Golden-Saxifrage and Water Avens. #wildflowerhour

Another weekend, another fantastic woodland to explore, this time ‘down south’ in Teesdale. As ever, lots of highlights to share, but the fantastic displays of Herb-paris (Paris quadrifolia) definitely took the biscuit. #wildflowerhour

We're calling on all plant-lovers to take images of wonderful wildflowers this summer & enter them in our Botanical Photographer of the Year competition! There are 5 categories and (new for 2026) we are introducing a separate award for young photographers. Find out more: bsbi.org/take-part/ac...

Mountain Pansies of just about every colour imaginable (except pure yellow, annoyingly) from a patch of calaminarian grassland today. #wildflowers