Bookings for #BSBISpringConference close tonight...so be quick and visit bsbi.org/irish-conferen… if you'd like to come along and find out what's new in Irish botany! Its all free too. BSBI: Botanical Society of Britain & Ireland NBG Ireland National Parks and Wildlife Service Oonagh Duggan Micheline Sheehy Skeffington Olly Lynch Milner Phoebe O'Brien

Looking to get into wildflower identification this summer?🌷

Don't miss this upcoming Plantlife Families Workshop from BSBI Scotland on 18 May in Dunfermline!

£40 per person (50% discount for BSBI member and full-time students)⚠️BOOKING IS ESSENTIAL⚠️

…tyofbritainandireland.beaconforms.com/form/6ecaec18

Wending my way south for #dandefest2024 . The walks from Tebay on the M6 are way better than any other services I know. There's even a footpath across an unimproved marshy grassland with flowering dandelions!

'The name 'Cuckooflower' was explained by 16thc. herbalist, John Gerard as 'These flower for the most part in April and May when the Cuckoo begins to sing her pleasant notes without stammering''
Zoë Devlin
#wildflowers #wildflowerhour #nature

Early scorpiongrass, Myosotis ramosissima. #wildflowerhour

I shall regularly be posting Bluebells as is my custom for this time of year 😄
Here with additional sparkle from Stitchwort flowers.

We travel abroad, we visit museums and galleries, we dream of faraway places. But there are hedge banks HERE, ready to be marvelled: whole exquisite worlds of mosses and bluebells, of leaves as beautiful as cut glass, of greens of real plants, not painted. On. Our. Doorsteps.

One of the gorgeous Green-winged Orchids (Anacamptis morio) at Ashton Court, Bristol, this individual modelling examples of extremely fine green wings - which give the orchid its common name.

#NationalOrchidDay
#wildflowerhour

Hannah Bourne-Taylor This is just 15 minutes walk from me in Ealing at WarrenFarmNatureReserve now, hopefully, saved from being buried under football pitches and promised by EalingCouncil to be designated a local nature reserve.

Early Spider Orchids (Ophrys sphegodes) on the South Downs N.P. East Sussex England - 18 April 2024
South Downs National Park Love the South Downs South Downs Ranger Sussex Wildlife Trust 🦔 Sussex Botanical Recording Society BSBI: Botanical Society of Britain & Ireland Wild Orchids UK & Ireland Britain's Orchids European Orchids & Wildflowers

Seagrass meadows face uncertain future, scientists say buff.ly/4aAhATr v James Cook Uni #PlantScience

After this vandalism last Spring, the council rightly apologised and planted a large patch of wildflowers on the estate to make up the incident which were just starting to come up this week.

This morning they mowed down the wildflower they themselves had planted. Words fail me.

Gardeners urged to plant more amid wildlife decline
botany.fyi/mvtXI3

Garden Organic, a horticultural charity based in Ryton-on-Dunsmore, Warwickshire, is encouraging people to grow more plants, flowers and trees to attract insects, birds and other creatures.
#Botany

very useful morning discussing elms at Kew with David Shreeve and Sam Ford, in preparation for a forthcoming book on elm from Kew Publishing

Heading off to Devizes tomorrow for BSBI: Botanical Society of Britain & Ireland dandelion workshop. Here's a pic of Taraxacum subundulatum with it's outer involucral bracts forming a ruff, a specialist of 'mead' (ancient water meadow) #dandefest2024

Almost out: Sanicula europaea (Sanicle) in a local High Weald Ancient Wood today. The Flora has “ESx: occasional, locally frequent” and this is the only patch I see. Sussex Botanical Recording Society BSBI: Botanical Society of Britain & Ireland Moira O'Donnell

Because it is #NationalOrchidDay (well, it was yesterday but whatever 🤪), pls have a look at
a) 5 cool facts about orchids (see vid below produced by the talented Lydia Shellien-Walker!)
b) the orchid tree of life (read more about it here: nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/np…)
Please share!

First flowering fly orchid (Ophrys insectifera) that I have seen this year.
Buckinghamshire. April 18th 2024 .BBO Wildlife Trust BSBI: Botanical Society of Britain & Ireland Chilterns National Landscape Wild Orchids UK & Ireland

Species spot - Daisy, Bellis perennis. The true arrival of spring is subject to debate, but the Daisy was said to herald the change in season. When you could place your foot down & cover seven daisies this was said to mean spring had sprung. We love them for their simplicity.

wildflowerhour Donna Rainey BSBI: Botanical Society of Britain & Ireland Cowslips beside our pond in the west of Ireland 😊