A lovely cool breeze at Severn Beach for my #ByTheSea collection for #WildflowerHour a thoroughly enjoyable few hours 🙂. Names in Alt.
Fran Sinclair
@notfrangible.bsky.social
Plants are my passion but the rest of the world is pretty fascinating, too. Except sport.
On the ceiling of the hallway this evening - a Lilac Beauty Apeira syringaria; a beautiful moth. Potted and freed in Bradford-on-Avon #TeamMoth
They strimmed down the Mayweeds and Geranium rotundifolium along the wall but kept the (admittedly statuesque) Burdock (near the white van) which is repaying them handsomely. I hope the young footballers appreciate it. 🙄
Now that I’ve got my train ticket to find plants #ByTheSea there’s no need to save up my #PavementPlants for Sunday’s #WildflowerHour! Names in Alt - was tempted to call the Oxalis Rorschach’s Sorrel 😊
Found this glabrous Amaranthus sp last week and returned yesterday hoping for seeds to confirm either A. hybridus or A. retroflexus. All other weeds untouched but this one taken without trace ☹️
Lastly, Wild Teasel, Woolly Thistle, Small Scabious and Dwarf Thistle. The last three from today’s meeting and the Teasel just because. #WildflowerHour
Three Clustered Bellflower from today’s #WiltsBotSoc meeting on the National Trust’s Stonehenge arable reversion sites - a very impressive selection of chalk grassland species in the fields where reversion began a fair few years ago. And a cool breeze too! #WildflowerHour
A few #PavementPlants for #WildflowerHour too - Chicory, Lady’s Bedstraw and, more reasonably for an urban setting, Garden Lobelia all in Bradford-on-Avon
The edge of the K&A canal was the closest I got to #WetlandPlants this week. Orange Balsam and Wild Angelica qualify but the Greater Burdock doesn’t much care where it finds itself. #WildflowerHour
Mystery oddities in mown grass/ equisetum in southern Lapland last week. No other part of plants visible. Wondered if they were galls or phyllody (but of what?); anyone have an idea, please?
White Marsh Thistle at Landford Bog, Bristly Ox-tongue, Ragwort, Hemp-agrimony and Field Bindweed close to K&A canal, and Ploughman’s Spikenard 😍 #StillFlowering on top of a wall for #WildflowerHour
All #StillFlowering beside the Avon: Great Willowherb, Gypsywort, Branched Bur-reed and Tansy with Purple Loosestrife #WildflowerHour
Recorded these Broad-leaved Helleborines in 2024 when they had already gone over, last year they didn’t flower, but this year Yay! Extra spikes and #StillFlowering - such wonderful plants! #WildflowerHour
The interesting ones from my Finland trip that were harder to identify without books and time alone! Help/corrections would be much appreciated @ghostofdatura.bsky.social @bramblebotanist.bsky.social
... that this is an industrial revolution built on better, cheaper and more reliable technologies, that would be worth investing in even if there was no such thing as climate change What if the altruistic narratives are crowding out the self-interested ones?
Apart from those that bit me, the invertebrates in Finland were beautiful! Ichneumon on car, Hoverfly on a Hieracium, Bee Beetle & small Bumblebee on Melancholy Thistle, Carpet Moth on window, Dark Green Fritillary on Clover, Northern Blue maybe on Goldenrod, plus a moth! #WildWebsWednesday
My hosts don’t know what happened to this tree but it is protected as a landmark in Siika-Kämä, Finland #ThickTrunkTuesday
Some of the highlights of the last few days in Finland - Spreading Bellflower, Twinflower, Jacob’s Ladder, Fringed Pink, Melancholy Thistle and Cowbane. Not really for #WildflowerHour since they’re out of country, but thrilling to find 😍
Collecting Cloudberries and midges in Siika-Kämä I happened upon Round-leaved Sundew Drosera rotundifolia 🙂
Some wonderful plants here in Oulu but the one I would most like to take home (so far) is Woolly Burdock Arctium tomentosum
A very enjoyable trip to WWT's scenic Morgan Hill reserve with @notfrangible.bsky.social last Monday to see orchids and other flora. IDs in ALT text. #wildflowerhour #orchid @bsbibotany.bsky.social @wildflowerhour.bsky.social @ukorchids.bsky.social @europeanorchids.bsky.social
A few #ClimbingPlants for #WildflowerHour Hedge Bindweed, Travellers’ Joy, Common Ivy and Hop scrambling over brambles.
Some fabulous species today on joint #WiltsBotSoc Dorset Flora Group meeting at Wareham Common and Slepe Heath. Names in Alt.
Calocoris roseomaculatus - or what Snoopy would call a cute bug - on Catsear at Morgan’s Hill on Monday #WildWebsWednesday
A few #InvasivePlants for #WildflowerHour - Water Bent runs riot locally, pretty Mexican Fleabane and Yellow Corydalis look good but they take over a lot of choice habitat, Green Alkanet is a thug whose rootstock can damage walls, and Virginia Creeper smothers anything given half a chance!
I’ve been watching this urbanum’weed’ for some time hoping it would survive to flower. Today at Bradford-on-Avon open gardens I saw what it can aspire to! Visnaga dacoides - not really #WildflowerHour
After hiding away from the heat this week, what a tonic - Wiltshire Wildlife Trust’s superb Distillery Meadows with #WiltsBotSoc (names in Alt)
