Artemisia maritima - Sea Wormwood and Sporobolus anglicus - Common Cordgrass, on the saltmarsh at Walborough. #WildflowerHour #ByTheSea
Emma Creasey - Bad Botanist
@badbotanist.bsky.social
Amateur botanist and conservation volunteer. She/her.
Limonium vulgare - Common Sea-Lavender and Spergularia media - Greater Sea-Spurrey, still flowering #ByTheSea at Avon WT Walborough nature reserve near Weston-super-Mare. #WildflowerHour
A stunning wasp spider at Avon WT Goblin Combe - first record for the site? The zigzag woven into the web below her is a feature of this species.
This common centaury (Centaurium erythraea) has been enjoying the protective shade of some bramble leaves. #StillFlowering at AWT Goblin Combe. #WildflowerHour
A carline thistle (Carline vulgaris) with, unbelievably, some GREEN foliage on it! (Never seen one before that wasn't entirely brown whatever the weather). #StillFlowering at AWT Goblin Combe this week. #WildflowerHour
Yellow-wort (Blackstonia perfoliata) trying to rival the effulgency of the sun beating down on it. #WildflowerHour
A hot day on the grassland at Avon WT Goblin Combe but Dwarf Thistle (Cirsium acaule) and Harebell (Campanula rotundifolia) still manage to look fresh! #WildflowerHour
According to Buglife, 30 species of insect are completely dependent upon Ragwort (Senecio jacobaea). One of these is the cinnabar moth (Tyria jacobaeae - see the clue in the name?) The adult - one of our #PollinatorPals - was camera shy but the kids proved to be better behaved. #WildflowerHour
Two hoverflies, Marmalade (Episyrphus balteatus) and I think a Common Globetail (Sphaerophoria scripta) show their stripes against the glorious yellow of cinquefoil (Potentilla reptans). #PollinatorPals #WildflowerHour
Bramble at AWT Goblin Combe attracting plenty of #PollinatorPals this week. Red-tailed Bumblebee (Bombus lapidarius) and Marmalade Hoverfly (Episyrphus balteatus) both enjoyed burrowing into the flowers. #WildflowerHour
More from my mini-meadow! My Fox and Cubs (Pilosella aurantiaca) are romping away, and I also have a St John's Wort (Hypericum sp) though I forgot to check what kind... #WildflowerHour #LetItBloomJune
Up the road from the church, here is Wall Pennywort (Umbilicus rupestris) on a wall where I expect to find it, in its more usual company of Ivy-leaved Toadflax (Cymbalaria muralis - muralis means 'of the wall') and Rustyback fern (Asplenium ceterach). #WildflowerHour
I was temporarily flummoxed by these #ChurchyardFlowers before realising they were a congregation of Wall Pennywort (or Navelwort, Umbilicus rupestris) but not on a wall where I expect to find it! Instead it is enjoying the gravel round a gravestone. A horizontal wall I suppose. #WildflowerHour
More #ChurchyardFlowers for #WildflowerHour. The pink flowers of Common Mallow (Malva sylvestris) and tiny white-lilac blooms, plus hairy pods, of Hairy Tare (Vicia hirsuta).
Happy to see the #ChurchyardFlowers challenge as I revisited one of my lockdown cycle ride destinations. (I live in a new town with no churchyards!) Here is Smooth Hawk's-beard, with friend, and Green Alkanet shown off against a gravestone. #WildflowerHour
Finally from the mini-meadow, Bulbous Buttercup (Ranunculus bulbosus) and White Clover (Trifolium repens). Still plenty of things coming up! #WildflowerHour #NoMowMay
Don't forget the flowering grasses in the mini-meadow! Crested Dog's-tail (Cynosurus cristatus) wags happily above Cock's-foot (Dactylis glomerata), while Annual Meadow-grass (Poa annua) is getting on with Sweet Vernal Grass (Anthoxanthum odoratum) #WildflowerHour #NoMowMay
Some Asteraceae from the mini-meadow. Beaked Hawksbeard (Crepis vesicaria), Common Cat's-ear (Hypochaeris radicata) and Mouse-ear Hawkweed (Pilosella officinarum). #NoMowMay #WildflowerHour
It's the last day of #NoMowMay (not that I am about to start mowing again, still too much coming up!) And it is all yellow in my mini-meadow. Yellow Rattle (Rhinanthus minor) and Lesser Trefoil (Trifolium dubium) to start. #WildflowerHour
Germander Speedwell, Wild Strawberry, Scarlet Pimpernel and Common Mouse-ear all at AWT Goblin Combe this week. #WildflowerHour
A couple of Potentillas strutting their stuff; Silverweed (P.anserina) and Tormentil (P. erecta). #WildflowerHour
Heath Speedwell has been putting on its own #WildFlowerShow all by itself - I found both purple and white varieties. #WildflowerHour
This Bird's-foot Trefoil has got all dressed up for today's #WildFlowerShow by wearing Heath Speedwell as a bonnet. #WildflowerHour
A couple of #TinyPlants from my #NoMowMay front 'lawn'; cut-leaved crane's-bill, Geranium dissectum, and a cornsalad (Valerianella) - I'm told you can't identify the species until they fruit, which I've never managed to catch them doing. #WildflowerHour
Really a very tiny plant and tricky to focus on! After some puzzling with the book we decided this was Annual Pearlwort, Sagina apetala, but happy to be corrected... #WildflowerHour #TinyPlants
Two tiny speedwells for #WildflowerHour #TinyPlants. Veronica officinalis (Heath Speedwell), a new one for me, and V. serpyllifolia (Thyme-leaved Speedwell).
Alas, couldn't make #WildflowerHour but found such lovely #CarrotsAndPeas at Avon WT Walborough I still want to share them even if late! My favourite tiniest carrot, Honewort, and Horseshoe Vetch.