A few fresh orchids popping up today in Burren National Park 🌸 • Heath Spotted-orchid (Dactylorhiza maculata) • Fragrant Orchid (Gymnadenia conopsea) • Dark Red Helleborine (Epipactis atrorubens) Always a treat to see these beauties emerging! 🌿 #BurrenNationalPark

As #InvasiveSpeciesWeek continues and #BiodiversityWeek begins, I’m excited to be heading out tomorrow to explore some of Ardmore’s local habitats with @phoebeobrien.bsky.social, the Waterford City & County Council Biodiversity Office, and Ardmore Tidy Towns. #BiologicalInvasions

New on the blog! Fran Giaquinto and @phoebeobrien.bsky.social talk to us about their new book 🌿 Read the full interview ➡️ loom.ly/Dsds9E0 #InvasiveSpeciesWeek #INNSweek #nonnativeplants #invasivespecies #invasiveplants #invasivealienspecies #botany

Not just for Scottish botanists: this wonderful (& amazingly readable!) book talks about the distribution of the covered species in Ireland too, with lots of interesting background about bramble ecology & dispersal. Buy it, you might get hooked😉 @phoebeobrien.bsky.social @ollysflora123.bsky.social

#Greatirishgrasslands event at one of the soon to be announced new Grasslands Trail sites. Thanks to Burren in Bloom for inviting me

For the past few months I've been working on bringing to life something that I think is really needed: a field guide to plant pathogens (focusing on fungi and oomycetes). It has gotten to the point where I feel I can share it publically - read more at irishplants.org/blog/2025/03... ! #FungiFriends

Seems to be Violet Rust, Puccinia violae. Any ideas? #wildflowerhour @bitheolaidhe.bsky.social

Brilliant, just what we all need, with sedge season not far off! @bsbibotany.bsky.social @npwsireland.bsky.social @phoebeobrien.bsky.social #greatirishgrasslands #irishplants @tanyaslat.bsky.social @manxpeat.bsky.social @irishwildlifetrust.bsky.social @bitheolaidhe.bsky.social

Fran and I are so excited to share this link for preorders of our book. We hope you like it! pelagicpublishing.com/products/ide...

New book on lichens by Paul Whelan looks good charliebyrne.ie/product/lich...

It's often assumed that due to their small spores, fungi can easily disperse to wherever their hosts are - but there is actually decent evidence that mycorrhizal fungi are dispersal limited. Different climatic niches further lead to mismatched ranges as discussed in the interesting article below.

Before we all fled X, I asked around for people's experiences of Konik ponies. #Greatirishgrasslands. We have just posted a beautiful film about winter grazing with these ponies and conservation cattle. Check it out youtu.be/w26QfaGXGqM?...

Earlier in the year I pledged £5000 for small conservation projects. So far: Swift bricks for developments in Ireland ✅ Wildflower seeds for Cheshire & Wirral schools/groups ✅ Perennials for Cheshire meadow & wet woodland restoration ✅ Some funding still available—get in touch! 🌱

Hay Meadow decline in Ireland. When? CSO say 864,000 ha was lost between 1986 and 1991! 69% in 4-5 years! From 1.258 million hectares to 394,000 hectares! Out of nowhere Grass Silage rockets! The latest 2023 figures puts Hay at 107,000 ha, 91% loss from 1986 Silage was 1.104 million ha in 2023

Argentine Fleabane Erigeron bonariensis. You'd be forgiven for walking past these American fleabanes, but once you take a closer look you might not forgive yourself for having ignored them. #wildflowerhour @bsbibotany.bsky.social

A cheery splash of colour today in #CountyKerry after the monochrome (and beautiful!) palette of the snow and storm this week #WildflowerHour

This new study suggests that high-quality old grassland may be particularly good at supporting pollinators because diverse food sources provided by such grassland provide additional health benefits. besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/... | Pornon et al. @funecology.bsky.social

Brilliant day at @bsbibotany.bsky.social conference. I met so many of my botanical heroes

Fascinating talk be Trevor Dines on the factors driving urban botany including heat islands. @bsbibotany.bsky.social conference

Brilliant talk by @sandyknapp.bsky.social at @bsbibotany.bsky.social conference on the importance of taxonomic botany for food security (among many other things): quantifying evolutionary rates and adaptive potential in crops requires a detailed phylogeny of wild relatives for comparative studies.

Thanks @bsbibotany.bsky.social for many excellent talks, posters, exhibits and discussion at the British and Irish Botanical Conference today. Exciting to get a peek in the Natural History Museum herbarium too!

Great day at @bsbibotany.bsky.social annual British and Irish Botany Conference -inspiring talks, fabulous people! Botanists are the best ❤️🌱

Interesting #greatirishgrassland

Come talk to me about plant pathogens and my poster at the @bsbibotany.bsky.social British and Irish Botanical Conference next Saturday!! Here's a sneak peak:

Faoi bhláth cois farraige inniu #WildflowerHour #CountyKerry

Quick hello. It might take me a bit to find everyone. No #wildflowerhour tonight. I got rather taken with the super low tide instead