Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

BSBI Botany

@bsbibotany.bsky.social

7.9K followers 7.4K following 580 posts

Botanical Society of Britain & Ireland Studying, appreciating, recording & conserving wild plants across Britain & Ireland. Supporting the botanists who care about our wild plants https://bsbi.org/ #NewYearPlantHunt #PlantAtlas2020 #WildFlowerHour

bsbi.org

Posts Media Videos Starter Packs

Pinned

BSBI Botany @bsbibotany.bsky.social · 5d

Want to up your #WildFlowerID game this winter?
We just launched our Winter Webinar programme!
7-8pm, every Tuesday from 4 Nov - 10 Feb.
Thanks to funding from @daera-ni.gov.uk, these 10 great plant ID webinars are FREE for all of you to attend!
Programme & booking links: bsbi.org/botanical-sk...

1 27 84

BSBI Botany @bsbibotany.bsky.social · 22h

Huge thanks to @daera-ni.gov.uk for funding our winter programme of Botanical Skills webinars!
They are all free so please use the links below to book your spaces!

James Harding-Morris @bsbicountries.bsky.social · 1d

I'm delighted that we have a whole range of talks from our Northern Ireland Botanical Skills Project taking place this winter on Tuesday evenings.

Want to learn more about conifers? Rushes? Clubmosses? Hawthorns? Plant Pathogenic Fungi? ROBOTS??

See them all here:
bsbi.org/botanical-sk...

Botanical Skills Webinars – Botanical Society of Britain & Ireland

bsbi.org

3 10

BSBI Botany @bsbibotany.bsky.social · 22h

Looking forward to NI #NPMS10 event on 25 Oct, showcasing the fab #NPMSvolunteers without whom there would be no
@npms.bsky.social!
The botanical photos talk is by @organicbotanic.bsky.social whose gorgeous images grace #WildFlowerHour every Sunday.
Book here: www.tickettailor.com/events/botan...

1 2

Reposted by BSBI Botany

Tara @wildtara.bsky.social · 1d

Stopped to admire this Blue Fleabane while out today as well as take this toad up the bank to the compost piles. #ettington #toad #wildflowers @arc-trust.bsky.social @bsbibotany.bsky.social

Toad on my gloved hand. He looks a bit put out.

Blue fleabane flower with my hand as a backdrop. Didn’t pick it.

2 27

Reposted by BSBI Botany

Alex Prendergast @bramblebotanist.bsky.social · 1d

Scilly Cabbage Aeonium cuneatum fully established on walls around Hugh Town, St Mary’s

2 2 29

Reposted by BSBI Botany

David Elston @1davidelston.bsky.social · 2d

A good day for tiny plants at Sands of Forvie NNR today: after admiring the small adder's-tongues we went back to count them (22 plants), then noticed allseed (10 plants) which we'd missed a few minutes earlier. First allseed I've seen there after over 30 years of trying! My pinkie for scale.

4 36

Reposted by BSBI Botany

WildPlantWanderer @wildplantwanderer.bsky.social · 2d

Wood Avens, Dandelion (?), Herb Robert, Gorse 2/3 #WildflowerHour @bsbibotany.bsky.social

1 14

Reposted by BSBI Botany

Alex Prendergast @bramblebotanist.bsky.social · 2d

Thames saltmarsh this week looking for Salicornia obscura among others.. no luck on that but plenty of this which appears to be Salicornia obscura x ramosissima #wildflowerhour

1 10

Reposted by BSBI Botany

Adrian Dutton @nottscoleoptera.bsky.social · 1d

Clematis vitalba still going strong mid October growing out of a Nottingham city wall. @bsbibotany.bsky.social

2 13

Reposted by BSBI Botany

Andy Platt @andyplatt.bsky.social · 2d

Finding it a bit hard to get on time for #wildflowerhour recently. Better late than never. Apple-of-Peru, Nicandra physalodes and Common Fumitory, Fumaria officinalis. @wildflowerhour.bsky.social @bsbibotany.bsky.social

1 14

Reposted by BSBI Botany

BSBI Scotland @bsbiscotland.bsky.social · 2d

An unusual one for #wildflowerhour this week - Ribwort Plantain with a new basal rosette developing from within the seedhead! Ok not a flower, but it’s all reproduction isn’t it?! 😁

A new rosette of green leaves growing out of the brown seedhead of Ribwort Plantain, held on a long green stalk above a background of green grass

3 35

Reposted by BSBI Botany

Andy Musgrove @andymus.bsky.social · 2d

Great stuff. Someone put me onto this - I think it was @bramblebotanist.bsky.social perhaps posting about it?

John Martin @pilning.bsky.social · 2d

Plymouth Thistle (Carduus pycnocephalus) at (where else?) Plymouth Hoe and Plymouth Thistle selfie with @janettem34.bsky.social on the way back from the SW. Thanks to @andymus.bsky.social for the quality gen. Three plants in flower in this area #wildflowerhour

1 1 10

Reposted by BSBI Botany

BSBI Ireland @bsbiireland.bsky.social · 2d

Want to learn more about the National Plant Monitoring Scheme #npms?
Join our 10th anniversary celebrations on volunteer day in Oxford Island, Co Armagh on 25th October (www.tickettailor.com/events/botan...), or in Glenarm, Co Antrim on 6th November (www.tickettailor.com/events/botan...)

Select tickets – National Plant Monitoring Scheme: 10th Anniversary Celebrations, Northern Ireland – Lough Neagh Discovery Centre, County Armagh

National Plant Monitoring Scheme: 10th Anniversary Celebrations, Northern Ireland – Lough Neagh Discovery Centre, County Armagh, Sat 25 Oct 2025 - The National Plant Monitoring Scheme (NPMS) turns 10...

www.tickettailor.com

4 3

Reposted by BSBI Botany

James Harding-Morris @bsbicountries.bsky.social · 4d

Two similar endemic whitebeams. On the left is Round-leaved Whitebeam, on the right is Twin Cliffs Whitebeam.

Described in 2009, the Twin Cliffs Whitebeam was named Sorbus eminentoides, which means, basically, 'looks like Round-leaved Whitebeam' - whose scientific name is Sorbus eminens.

3 23

Reposted by BSBI Botany

David Elston @1davidelston.bsky.social · 5d

Himalayan knotgrass along the Old Deeside Railway Line to the west of Aberdeen. Quite a large patch but hidden from view down the embankment and behind some bushes. Will control measures drive invasive non-natives to evolve to grow in hidden corners (as if they don't do enough of that already)?

1 2 5

Reposted by BSBI Botany

Donncha Ó Catháin @donncha-oc.bsky.social · 3d

Wood-name townlands of Clonderlaw barony Co. Clare

Trees in the placenames are Oak (Doire/Derry); Alder (Fearnán/Fearnóg) & Holly (Cuileann)

In 1655 there were 1670 acres of wooded lands recorded consisting of

-Timber trees 701 a
-Young Wood 304 a
-Old Wood 361 a
-Shrubs 324 a

2 5

Reposted by BSBI Botany

Alex Prendergast @bramblebotanist.bsky.social · 5d

Beautiful salmon-coloured autumnal hues of Atriplex pedunculata Pedunculate Sea-purslane at its only GB location

1 2 37

Reposted by BSBI Botany

Martina Farrow @martifarrow.bsky.social · 2d

🌼 From our walk this afternoon, Perennial Sow-thistle - Sonchus arvensis 🔆
#WildflowerHour 🌱
@bsbibotany.bsky.social
@wildflowerhour.bsky.social

1 19

Reposted by BSBI Botany

Donncha Ó Catháin @donncha-oc.bsky.social · 2d

Nice afternoon of botanising in Sliabh Aughty, Co. Clare. Highlights - a new site for gametophyte of Killarney fern and 2nd county record for Polystichum x bicknellii (hybrid between P. aculeatum and P. setiferum) Need to confirm ID of latter but it seem to fit the description 🤞

3 11

Reposted by BSBI Botany

nickaston.bsky.social @nickaston.bsky.social · 3d

May not be much to look at, but this is the very rare Potamogeton nodosus Loddon Pondweed looking rather attractive in a river on the Hampshire Berkshire border.

1 1 12

Reposted by BSBI Botany

Steve Gale @stevewg.bsky.social · 3d

One of my favourite aliens - Corsican Mint - which has spread over paving for almost 40 years now. I have also seen it at Flimwell in East Sussex, alongside that great rarity Heath Lobelia. I do hope the latter species is still there!

Corsican Mint, Banstead, Surrey 12/10/25

1 1 7

Reposted by BSBI Botany

WildPlantWanderer @wildplantwanderer.bsky.social · 2d

Achillea and Trifolium pratense 3/3 #WildflowerHour @bsbibotany.bsky.social

1 11

BSBI Botany @bsbibotany.bsky.social · 1d

That is Sharp-flowered Rush. 2 of our webinars are all about Rushes!

1 1

BSBI Botany @bsbibotany.bsky.social · 2d

Huge thanks to everyone who shared pix for this evening's #WildFlowerHour!
Wondering which wild plants will still be blooming in the week ahead? Let's meet up next Sunday 8pm to compare notes!
@wildflowerhour.bsky.social

Rosalind Ahmed @21rosa.bsky.social · 2d

More roadside botanising in north west #Northumberland this afternoon. Chicory along the verges of the B6531 #wildflowerhour @bsbibotany.bsky.social

2 23

Reposted by BSBI Botany

Sarah @sarahfaulkner.bsky.social · 2d

So many plants to enjoy at the Nothe, Weymouth - seaweed in rockpools and trees in the park, but stand still too long and the squirrels will take advantage! 😂
For #wildflowerhour, flowers of Chicory, Tamarisk and Mayweed add colour. But the Ivy flowers are the stars - abuzz with honeybees and wasps.

1 17

Reposted by BSBI Botany

John Martin @pilning.bsky.social · 2d

Chain Fern (Woodwardia radicans) spreading well in Gulval Churchyard, Cornwall this week. A much bigger plant than I was expecting! #wildflowerhour

Chain Fern in churchyard in W Cornwall - a large and striking fern

3 34