I was watching this wasp get drunk on helleborine orchid nectar for a good ten minutes - such a lil beaut 🥹❤️

Just look at this gorgeous lil marsh pea, (Lathyrus palustris), growing in a dune slack! A nationally rare plant of calcareous fens - a habitat that’s been almost entirely lost across Britain. Here, it’s still clinging on 🌱❤️

Waking up everyday to this flowery paradise is just amazing. It’s so hard to believe that so many people think that short, constantly mown grass is so great…🥹😍🌱

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...

Reading the Landscape: An Introduction to Wetland & Fen Identification

LIVE COURSE: Tuesday 6th January 12:00 - 13:00 Beginner - Intermediate level  This one-hour introductory course explores key topics designed to make wetland identification clearer and more accessible....

britishbotany.co.uk

🚨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!! 😍🌱👏👏👏

Woodland Trust Scotland@wtscotsocial.bsky.social · 10mo ago

#AncientWoodlandRestoration in action! 🌲 Felling of one hectare of nature depleted conifer has begun at #PloraWood, Innerleithen. These non-natives are being removed and replanted with mixed native broadleaf species that will support local biodiversity and increase resilience 🐿️ 🍄 🍂

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

BBC One Countryfile - Hoylake Beach 10.04.2022

This is "BBC One Countryfile - Hoylake Beach 10.04.2022" by Zero Swamp on Vimeo, the home for high quality videos and the people who love them.

vimeo.com

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...

Alex Prendergast@bramblebotanist.bsky.social · last yr.

Some Taraxacum highlights of the @bsbibotany.bsky.social Dandelion recording weekend on the Isle of Wight - T. ciliare, tortilobum, discretum & sp nov ‘vectense’ #wildflowerhour