Last seen at Wybunbury Moss 169 years ago, I was shocked to find this big old patch of marsh valerian (Valeriana dioica) there the other day! A seriously rare beastie in Cheshire too eeeEE 😍🌱

Five years on & my gardens are an absolute paradise - 100s of orchids, 1000s of grasshoppers and so much more! All I did was plant native wildflowers plus mow ot twice a year, removing clippings each time. Low maintenance ✅ Amazing for wildlife ✅ What’s not to love?! 🌱❤️

Near-threatened in Britain (<15 sites), so buzzing to find bird’s-foot sedge (Carex ornithopoda) on this limestone pavement in Cumbria! These pavements take 1000s of years to form as rain cuts deep cracks, creating niches for rare wildlife - this sedge being one of them 😍🌱

A reliable indicator of truly ancient habitats - today marks the first time I’ve ever seen properly wild daffodils (Narcissus pseudonarcissus subsp pseudonarcissus)! This huge population was in a beautiful riparian ancient woodland in Cheshire and it’s made my whole month! 😍🌱

I’ve just released deets for a new wetland ID course, with a special emphasis on lowland fens! 😍🌱 Find out more here: britishbotany.co.uk/products/rea...

🚨Hoylake beach update🚨 After a LONG six years, we’re finally seeing a light at the end of the tunnel!! An agreement has finally been reached between @NaturalEngland and @WirralCouncil which means around 2% of the 41ha of vegetated foreshore at Hoylake will be cleared.

Fantastic work @wtscotsocial.bsky.social!! 😍🌱👏👏👏

Over 400 acorns sown so far, collected from veteran oaks nearby, with lots more to go! English oak (Quercus robur) supports >2,500 species, making it one of Britain’s most important trees for biodiversity — yet it’s far less common than it should be in Liverpool 🌱❤️

Absolutely the moon! Endangered dyer’s greenweed (Genista tinctoria) typically clings on in scraps of ancient grassland, but today we reintroduced 70+ plants I grew over summer onto this beaut Lancs Wildlife Trust reserve. Huge thanks to Stephen Cartwright & all who helped! 🌱❤️

Absolutely the moon! Endangered dyer’s greenweed (Genista tinctoria) typically clings on in scraps of ancient grassland, but today we reintroduced 70+ plants I grew over summer onto this beaut @Lancswildlife reserve. Huge thanks to Stephen Cartwright & all who helped! 🌱❤️

A major peat-former on fens and transition mires, bottle sedge (Carex rostrata) was all but extinct in Greater Manchester… Having been growing an absolute tonne of this beaut all summer, today was the day it was planted out in this recovering @Lancswildlife reserve 😍🌱

Beautiful chicken-of-the-woods (Laetiporus sulphureus) on a veteran oak by me in Liverpool today 😍

First time ever seeing this absolute stunnerrr in Cumbria today - few-flowered sedge (Carex pauciflora)! A specialist of blanket mires and poor fens, this lil beastie can be found at <15 places in England where it’s red-listed Near-Threatened 🌱❤️

Irreplaceable meadows need protecting📢📢 We wouldn’t let historic buildings like the Houses of Parliament get knocked down and built somewhere else. So why would we let ancient meadows? Join us in asking the government to safeguard these incredible habitats. #IrreplaceableMeadows

Has anyone else noticed it? After years of waiting, it looks like we’re going to have a mast year with our native oaks!!! I’ll be collecting acorns from veteran and ancient trees around Liverpool later this year for anyone or nurseries who would like some and would like to get in touch 🌱❤️

Spotted the striking (and pungent) bog myrtle (Myrica gale) in a Cumbrian upland fen yesterday. Once common on the Manchester Mosses before industry wiped it out over a century ago, Lancs Wildlife Trust and I have been working to reintroduce it since 2019 😍🌱

Last recorded >150 years ago in 1874, I was absolutely shocked to find oblong-leaved sundew (Drosera intermedia) at Abbots Moss in Cheshire!! Not only is this beastie both rare and red-listed, this will soon probably be the last population in the entire county! 😱🌱❤️

A once-common and abundant plant of grasslands, Dyer’s greenweed (Genista tinctoria) needs help. For #NationalMeadowsDay, I’ve put a guide together on the propagation, reintroduction and management of this functionally important & imperilled beastie: nwrpi.weebly.com/uploads/9/4/...

A day early for #NationalMeadowsDay, but just look at this ancient wildflower meadow I stumbled upon in Staffordshire the other day! Grasslands should be full of life like this beauty, but often fall silent. Restoring them is vital if we want to see nature recover 🌱❤️

AMAZING NEWS!!!! Known from less than 10 places in England and just one site left in Cheshire, this beaut saltmarsh flat-sedge (Blysmus rufus) was found for the first time today on Hoylake beach on Wirral!!! So exciting eeee 😍🌱

@joshual951.bsky.social vimeo.com/1090207654

A quick reminder that gardens can make such important spaces for biodiversity. 4 years on and things have come quite a way for me… - over 30 marsh and spotted orchids ✅ - rocketing wildflower species richness ✅ - huge abundance of pollinators and other invertebrates ✅

Not seen in this part of northwest England for over 50 years - it was amaze to find Common Cow-wheat (Melampyrum pratense)! Unlike its cousin, yellow rattle, this beastie doesn’t parasitise the roots of grasses. Instead, it goes for woody plants, including oaks 😍🌱

When I first moved into my house, there was a single marsh orchid that flowered in this meadow in 2022… After managing it, we’ve just had another record breaking year with 28 in flower now plus lots of other incredible wildlife making this place home!! Chuffed!!! 🌱❤️

Regionally Endangered in north-west England and last seen in Liverpool in 1926, today marks the first day that Dyer’s Greenweed (Genista tinctoria) has flowered here! Reintroduced with permission to this @lpoolcouncil.bsky.social grassland, today, it’s thriving! 😍🌱

Not a great year for a lot of insects, but wow…can’t remember the last time I had this many bug splats on my car! 😱😍

Keen to find out more about Dandelions (Taraxacum spp.)? Get started with the pix, resources and a fab free video from the amazing @joshual951.bsky.social - all on this page: bsbi.org/identificati...

Absolute shocker to find Toothwort (Lathraea squamaria), a rare and completely parasitic plant, at Manc Airport the other day. It hasn’t been seen here since 1965, while it now has only a single stronghold left in Cheshire 😨😍🌱

This gorgeous bank of Primroses and Violets at Hutchinson's Bank is always a safe bet to spot Dark-edged Bee-flies on a sunny Spring day. #BeeFlyWatch Read about the fascinating life history of Bee-flies here: www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/bee...

Last seen in Liverpool >100 years ago and found at two places Merseyside - it was a shock to find this beauttt at @nationaltrust.bsky.social Speke Hall! It’s Spring Sedge (Carex caryophyllea) - a reliable indicator of ancient grassland and heaths 😍🌱

So @wildjustice.bsky.social is too edgy for @privateeyenews.bsky.social ! We're fans because the magazine speaks truth to power . That's what WJ tries to do too . We were surprised when PE said that it wouldn't run our second and third adverts , especially as they gave no reason for this .

Nearly a year after I raised concerns about the @nationaltrust management of Speke Hall’s dry heath-the only example of its kind left in Merseyside- I met with them today as they committed to doubling its area! An amazing step for one of Merseyside’s most endangered habitats 🌱❤️

While walking down Netherley Brook to look for some of our rare woodland flora, I couldn’t help notice this sewage outfall pouring raw sewage nonstop into the brook! 😨🌱 How can this be stopped? Appalled is not the word @paulpowlesland.bsky.social @carlcashman.bsky.social

UPDATE: THANK YOU so much to everyone who donated!! Any additional donations beyond the goal will be used for continued involvement by Freeths. Where donations exceed cost, they will be donated in full to sand dune conservation. More updates to follow! 🌱❤️

Hoylake’s foreshore, an SAC, holds 2% of the UK’s young sand dunes. Yet, Natural England approved 1.5ha of clearance, endangering globally rare wildlife. I’ve instructed Freeths to challenge this & am raising £1,900 in legal fees. Any support helps! 🌱❤️ gofund.me/2669579c

Ahhhh - look at this beautiful children’s book I helped feed in to by Mama Makes Books! My niece is going to adore it 😍🌱

It may look like plain old grass now, but this 0.5ha plot will be teeming with wildflowers soon! We’ve been cutting and collecting clippings to help wildflower seeds germinate, and adding locally collected wildflowers like this yellow rattle. So excited for 2025 and beyond! 😍🌱

5 years after herbicide use ended, Hoylake foreshore is thriving: 240+ plant species ✅ 42k tonnes of sand captured annually, saving £45k ✅ Home to 2% of UK’s embryonic dunes ✅ Peat soils forming ✅ 30ha of rare habitat = biodiversity, protection, carbon capture 🌱❤️

With only a handful of places left to see Variegated Horsetail (Equisetum variegatum) in Yorkshire, I did not expect to find this rare beastie at @nosterfieldnr.bsky.social where its naturally moved in and thriving!! So so exciting to see all the amazing work at this special place 😍🌱

In a certain irony, the creation of new habitat between West Kirby and Hoylake. In May #Wirral Council and Natural England cleared parts of West Kirby beach designated a Special Area of Conservation in a move The Office for Environmental Protection says may have been illegal. @joshual951.bsky.social

NEW report from us @wildjustice.bsky.social today - #LostNature - which details how housing developers are failing wildlife across the board on every measure . 🧵

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! 🌱

OVER THE MOON! 😍 Golden bog-moss (Sphagnum pulchrum), a nationally v rare beastie, was presumed extinct on Britain’s 3rd largest raised bog… That is, until today, where I stumbled upon this teeny area where it’s clinging on for dear life! Isn’t it a beaut? 😍🌱

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

A year in the life of a Liverpool meadow… Since I moved into my home in 2021, I’ve taken on managing 2ha of @lpoolcouncil.bsky.social grassland for wildlife. From then, the diversity and abundance of wildflowers has skyrocketed!! 😍🌱

Finally decided to join this app from twitter 🤩 Anywho - here are some piccies of Papillose Bog-moss (Sphagnum papillosum) from the other day! We’ve been reintroducing the plant across Manchester bogs to help reform one of Britain’s most Endangered habitats - active raised bog 😍🌱