On Monday 17th November we have a webinar from our @npwsireland.bsky.social-funded Targeted Aquatic Plants Project. This webinar, from the fantastic Nick Stewart, is about the identification of non-native aquatic plants. Interested? Book yourself a ticket here: www.tickettailor.com/events/botan...

I was walking through the Edinburgh Botanic Gardens last weekend when I spotted an utterly unmistakable leaf on the ground. Catacol Whitebeam! Arguably one of the rarest trees on Earth.

Over the winter, our Northern Ireland Botanical Skills Project is running a series of webinars on Tuesday evenings. This week we had the amazing Mark Duffell explaining the etymology of scientific names. Who knew that 'galeobdolon', the specific name of Yellow Archangel, means weasel-scented?

A new Red List for Vascular Plants in Great Britain has just been published - the first update for twenty years 🌿 So what is a Red List, and why does it matter? What does this new report tells us about the state of Britain’s flora?

Britain supports a variety of species found nowhere else on Earth. But many of these are seldom celebrated and in some cases barely known, writes James Harding-Morris:

In April 1948, in a cave in Devon, a tiny, blind shrimp was found in a cave - a species that had never been seen before. It was named Niphargus glenniei, the British Cave Shrimp, and in the years since it has never been seen anywhere outside of Devon and Cornwall; a species endemic to Britain.

Over the past couple of months I've repeated in various talks that 11 of our endemic plant species have gone extinct. I was delighted to read in the most recent BSBI News that one of these, the Glenridding Hawkweed, last seen in 1953, has been rediscovered!! 📷: Mark Lynes

I'm honoured to have had a positive review from Mark!

Join us online tomorrow to celebrate 10 years of the National Plant Monitoring scheme. Hear from the volunteers who take part. Talks 11-4pm (or pick & mix). Booking link below. Looking forward to celebrating 10 years amongst the wildflowers with you! #NPMS10 @bsbibotany.bsky.social

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...

Two similar endemic whitebeams. On the left is Round-leaved Whitebeam, on the right is Twin Cliffs Whitebeam. Described in 2009, the Twin Cliffs Whitebeam was named Sorbus eminentoides, which means, basically, 'looks like Round-leaved Whitebeam' - whose scientific name is Sorbus eminens.

The Little Whirlpool Ramshorn Snail - one of a series of photographs I commissioned whilst working on the Back from the Brink project so that people could actually *see* some of our most threatened and beautiful species. 📷: Alex Hyde/Back from the Brink

I was in York today so obviously had to have a quick look for York Groundsel. No luck with that, but did find this weird looking thing...

Britain has no endemic species of butterfly, but we do have a few unique subspecies. This is the endemic subspecies of the Silver-studded Blue found on the Great Orme, Plebejus argus ssp. caernensis, what I call the 'Orme Blue'. Check out those gorgeous silver-studs 😍

Excited to get my copy of Endemic by @bsbicountries.bsky.social today. Not because *ahem* I'm in the chapter on Interrupted Brome, but because of the many other spp & subsp to explore - some of which (like Great Orme's Graylings) I realise I've already seen without realising their significance.

Two endemic Welsh whitebeams, both with Rowan ancestry. Top is Ley's Whitebeam, Sorbus leyana, which has 9 remaining wild trees. Plant Atlas: share.google/INMlwgNZvgI7... Bottom is Least Whitebeam, Sorbus minima, which has a wild population of over 700. Plant Atlas: share.google/E4VQ14l0PvKL...

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

The Least Whitebeam, Sorbus minima, is in my humble and biased opinion, one of our best looking whitebeams. Small, adorable leaves with those deep lobes reflecting Rowan ancestry. This endemic tree has a very restricted range, but is abundant within it with over 700 trees known.

Very different looking seeds between Drosera anglica (gwlithlys mawr / great sundew) and D intermedia (gwlithlys hirddail / oblong-leaved sundew). In the hybrid between D anglica and D rotundifolia the seed pods don’t really open and the seeds are just soft pale brown bits. #sundews #drosera

Some positive plant news from the BSBI - Holly Fern rediscovered in Cwm Idwal after 150 years! share.google/ZlNYNfC4f6h2... And with a quote from our very own @bsbicymru.bsky.social Plant Atlas maps for Holly Fern here: share.google/9t1TB44l1G1i...

The Flixborough Disaster happened on June 1st 1974. A chemical plant in North Lincolnshire exploded, killing 28 people, injuring many others, and destroying houses. My mum was 10 years old & on a family trip to the seaside. When they got home they found that their house had been ruined by the blast.

The Lundy Cabbage, Coincya wrightii, is one of our most special endemic plants. Discovered surprisingly late, 1930s, it is only known from about 3km of the east coast of Lundy, off the coast of Devon, where it mostly grows on steep, inaccessible cliffs.

If you've ever monitored a National Plant Monitoring Scheme square, or have ever wanted to, or are a supporter of citizen science, or you're interested in how plant recording can help inform conservation - then book on to one of these free events below. @daera-ni.gov.uk @ulsterwildlife.bsky.social

Sibling species! York Groundsel on the left, Welsh Groundsel on the right. I call them siblings because they evolved through hybrid speciation from the same parent species; Groundsel and Oxford Ragwort. Both arose as brand new endemic species recently, probably in the last century and a half.

🌱🌾🌺🏵️🌳🌿🌏 Amazing number of enthusiastic students keen on #botany at Third Student Botany Festival; 94 from UK and Ireland. Thinking about #careerswithplants & here listening to @cieem.bsky.social @bsbicountries.bsky.social @spun.earth @drmgoeswild.bsky.social #BUC2025

A couple more endemic whitebeam leaves; Bristol Whitebeam on the left, with those lovely jagged lobes, found only in the Avon Gorge. The aptly named Round-leaved Whitebeam is on the right, also from (but not *only* from) the Avon Gorge, easily distinguished by those ping-pong bat leaves.

Leaves from three species of endemic whitebeam, all from Arran. Top left is Arran Whitebeam, top right is Arran Service-tree, bottom is Catacol Whitebeam, arguably one of the rarest trees on the planet with only a single mature individual left in the wild. Plant Atlas: share.google/1KLV7i0QyxC7...

We invite all #BSBImembers & supporters to take part in our 2025 survey & help inform our future direction! All responders receive a 60% discount code on our eBooks until the end of September & there's a prize draw to win a year's free membership. Start the survey: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

An opportunity of a lifetime for budding lichenologists. The National Trust and the Royal Botanics, Edinburgh are offering a PAID lichen traineeship in #Scotland! The work programme looks fascinating and a great opportunity to develop skills. Deadline: 3/10/2025. www.asva.co.uk/jobs/trainee...

I've been reading about the threat to Coul Links and the endemic Fonseca's Seed Fly. In the course of this I found a great report from 2013 about the distribution and habitat of this species. The bit that stood out to me? They couldn't survey at Coul Links because 'permission... was not forthcoming'

Coul Links is once again under threat. There are many reasons why damage to this site would be a terrible thing, but the one that aggravates me the most is that this site is home to a species found *nowhere else on Earth*

Misleading: BBC website users reading this headline would worry that the UK's native woods were under threat. In fact the Spruce Bark Beetle feeds on different kinds of Spruce, as the name suggests. There are no native species of Spruce in the UK. Headline should read UK's spruce plantations.

St Kilda used to be home to an endemic subspecies of House Mouse, Mus musculus muralis, first named in 1899, which became extinct shortly after the human population evacuated St Kilda in 1930. More stories of our unique species can be found in my book, Endemic, www.bloomsbury.com/uk/endemic-9...

I’ve spent quite a bit of time observing ‘weeds’ while working on the #urbanflora, but this one might just take the biscuit… 😅 Presenting Hemp (Cannabis sativa) in all its glory, growing on a patch of dumped soil in Walker.

Britain only has a few endemic mammal subspecies. The most fascinating one is the Orkney Vole, a unique subspecies of Common Vole found only on Orkney. The weird thing? We do not have Common Voles *anywhere else* in Britain. The full story is told in my book Endemic: share.google/yhC1m8MnwdvR...

Gorgeous 🤩

In two days I'm back in Cambridge and giving a talk on the species unique to Britain. 🗓️ 26 August at 6pm I’ll share stories from the book and extra tales that didn’t make it into print, including a spotlight on Cambridge’s very own endemic buttercup! 🌼 📍 Tickets: tinyurl.com/36aamfsw

A morning jaunt to a local nature reserve in Plymouth unveiled a gorgeous colony of Autumn Ladies Tresses (Spiranthes spiralis). A herald of autumn, this gorgeous species is largely restricted to south Britain often found growing on dry calcareous soils. A beautiful species and one of my favourites!

I saw Pteris tremula, Tender Brake, a species native to Australia and New Zealand, growing 'wild' in a cellar in Cambridge, whilst at Botanical University Challenge last week. An alien species so rare it doesn't even have a page on Plant Atlas!

Having a fantastic time at the Botanical University Challenge Student Botanty Festival! Really fascinating panel talk at the moment talking about the crucial questions in botany and ecology! Lovely to see the BSBI Countries Manager James Harding-Morris on stage too!

🌿 Join us in celebrating Plymouth’s fantastic achievement in the Botanical University Challenge, taking 2nd place in a very close national final yesterday! 🥈 You can watch the intense finals here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=bX_s... @bucbotany.bsky.social #BUC2025 #BotanicalUniversityChallenge #Botany

I was also over the moon to see a huge bush of the endemic Great Orme Berry in the Cambridge Botanic Gardens covered in fruit. And we match!

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!

Potamogeton acutifolius, Sharp-leaved Pondweed, was a new species for me this week. A species of grazing marshes that was never very common and has suffered a long-term decline. Great to see this in a beautiful ditch in Norfolk. Plant Atlas link: share.google/OwMHZxrwXLwy...

This issue also includes *three brand new endemic hawkweeds!* I know what I'm reading first!

Britain has one orchid said to be unique to us — Epipactis sancta, the Lindisfarne Helleborine. Found only on Holy Island (its scientific name even means 'holy'), it’s often described as 'sickly' green… but I think it’s more like fresh lime, blending with the dune grasses.

Join me in Cambridge on 26 August at 6pm for a talk about Endemic — my journey to meet Britain’s unique species. I’ll share stories from the book and extra tales that didn’t make it into print, including a spotlight on Cambridge’s very own endemic buttercup! 🌼 📍 Tickets: tinyurl.com/36aamfsw

I've been admiring the endemic Common Cordgrass, Spartina anglica, on the Suffolk coast today. This species evolved within Britain at some point in the last 150 years or so, via hybrid speciation - much like the endemic York Groundsel that I wrote about in my book.

I recently did a short interview with Bloomsbury about Endemic. I talk about what inspired me, what conservation challenges I think face endemic species, and suggest renaming a species 'Plymouth's Lovely Spider'. share.google/f59ypTPEhaY3...