BSBI Botany
LightNews LightNews
banner
bsbibotany.bsky.social
BSBI Botany
@bsbibotany.bsky.social
8.1K followers 7.7K following 680 posts
Botanical Society of Britain & Ireland
Studying, appreciating, recording & conserving our wild plants
Supporting the botanists who care about our wild plants
https://bsbi.org/
#GBRedList
#PlantAtlas2020
#NewYearPlantHunt
#WildFlowerHour
Posts Replies Media Videos
Pinned
bsbibotany.bsky.social
BSBI Botany @bsbibotany.bsky.social · 6d
Window now open to apply for a BSBI grant for 2026!
We offer grants for short #WildFlowerID courses (our online course #Identiplant & courses from external providers), and for Plant Study & Research.
Find out which grant is right for you: bsbi.org/learn/grants
Reposted by BSBI Botany
bsbiscotland.bsky.social
Alpine Lady-fern even has its own vegetation community: U18 Parsley Fern-Alpine Lady-fern snow bed community, which this pic shows stretching down the boulderfield below the crags where the previous photos were taken. Its fronds appear after the spring snow-melt, and die down rapidly in the autumn
Looking down a steep quartzite boulderfield in the sun, dotted with green clumps of Alpine Lady-fern growing out of a matrix of brownish mosses and the pink-grey boulders. The vegetation becomes sparser as we reach the corrie floor, in shadow in the middle distance, the boulderfield more uniform, before developing an orangey-brown and grey patchwork of grass and boulders as the corrie drops away
December 10, 2025 at 9:42 AM
Reposted by BSBI Botany
bsbiscotland.bsky.social
Finally, a fern! Day 10 of my botanical #adventcalendar is the delicate Alpine Lady-fern, a species of Scottish mountains that grows where the snow lies late, consequently declining linked to changing climate

I find the pattern of its fronds very restful, almost hypnotic to look at... #wildfernhour
The early morning sun rising over the Grey Corries mountain range picks out a clump of May-green coloured Alpine Lady's-fern (Athyrium distentifolium), its shuttlecock of fronds erect with a little downturn at the tip. Each frond is delicate and dissected, and on this plant the pinnules are down-turned at the edges. Behind, large blocks of pale quartzite dot the steep slope, turning to scree and crags as the corrie rises to the ridge crest. The sun is just topping the ridge, making an optical illusion as if shining through a semi-circular hole in the ridge, and its refraction on the camera lens forms a faint rainbow above the fern Looking down on a clump of Alpine Lady-fern, growing out of Woolly Fringe-moss (Racomitrium lanuginosum) at the base of a quartzite cliff. The elegant fronds are spreading, showing off their delicate dissection and yellow-green colour against the greys of the rock and moss.
December 10, 2025 at 9:42 AM
Reposted by BSBI Botany
bramblebotanist.bsky.social
Jo demonstrates there’s no need for botanists to be hibernating. 100 spp/monad in December is certainly worth wrapping up for. There’s a bonus of earlier than usual post-botanising pubs to discuss specimens too.. and it’s not just December, we have #NYPH & then it’s necrobotany & cryobotany season!
December 10, 2025 at 3:13 PM
Reposted by BSBI Botany
countrysidejobs.bsky.social
Training: @BSBIbotany.bsky.social: Winter Twigs Workshop and Conifers Workshop
c-js.info/TDSplant
CJS Training Directory:Identification and Field Survey Skills - Plants and Habitats short courses
Practical training in how to identify higher and lower orders of plants, how to classify vegetation groups and invasive alien species, also survey techniques. This page also details courses where a…
c-js.info
December 10, 2025 at 11:45 AM
Reposted by BSBI Botany
bsbiscotland.bsky.social
The gorgeous Goat's-beard is my pick for botanical #adventcalendar Day 9 - also known as Jack-go-to-bed-at noon as the flowers open in the morning sun, but close at midday.

Widespread, but easily overlooked unless its flowers are open, it also has the best seed clock in botany! #wildflowerhour
Looking vertically down on the open flower of Goat's-beard (Tragopogon pratensis). A ring of eight narrow green triangles (phyllaries, the composite flower version of sepals), spaced around the outside of a yellow, dandelion-like flower with blunt yellow ray florets (with strap-like 'petals' or ligules), each one with a dark purple-black spot at the base, which is the floret's anthers fused together to form a tube. From some of these dark tubes, the yellow style can be seen protruding out of the top. This plant is subspecies minor - the yellow ligules only extend about halfway along the green phyllaries; in subspecies pratensis the ligules are as long or longer than the phyllaries. The background below the flower consists of rank green grasses, growing on the verge of a footpath An open flowerhead of Goat's-beard (Tragopogon pratensis subspecies pratensis) in the foreground, with two closing flowerheads and several entirely closed flowerheads behind in the grassy verge
December 9, 2025 at 9:12 AM
Reposted by BSBI Botany
twintal.bsky.social
Himalayan Honeysuckle in flower Friday December 5 2025 @bsbibotany.bsky.social @plantlifeuk.bsky.social #CuerdenValleyPark
December 9, 2025 at 9:44 PM
Reposted by BSBI Botany
learnfromnature.bsky.social
Check out @bsbibotany.bsky.social ’s shiny new #website
bsbibotany.bsky.social BSBI Botany @bsbibotany.bsky.social · 22d
Checked out our shiny new website yet?
bsbi.org
New to @bsbibotany.bsky.social or #WildFlowerID?
We think you'll find it easier than ever to access resources, hear about events & learn more about wild plants in your area.
Seasoned botanist?
All your fave pages are still there + lots of new stuff!
December 9, 2025 at 3:05 PM
Reposted by BSBI Botany
bsbiscotland.bsky.social
Day 8 of my botanical #adventcalendar - Yellow Bird's-nest. This bizarre plant is a mycoheterotroph - it has no chlorophyll, so can't photosynthesis, and gets all its food from parasitising underground fungi!
In central Scotland it is found on mining bings - islands of biodiversity #wildflowerhour
Yellow Bird's-nest (Hypopitys monotropa), a bizarre looking mycoheterotroph. This plant has no chlorophyll, as evidenced by the photo - three stems of a pale, buff-yellow plant emerge from light green moss (Hypnum cupressiforme) and scattered leaf litter. Each stem is around 10 cm high, has translucent scales adpressed to it instead of regular leaves, and is topped by a drooping inflorescence consisting of around eight tubular flowers, each bell fused together with some irregular little teeth at the end. The whole plant is uniform in colour, with no distinction between the stem, scales or flowers. Behind, a young birch woodland filters sunlight.
December 8, 2025 at 7:24 AM
Reposted by BSBI Botany
carolinegilby.bsky.social
My offerings for #wildflowerhour are heather ( Calluna vulgaris) a red data list plant in Bedfordshire and climbing corydalis
December 7, 2025 at 9:01 PM
Reposted by BSBI Botany
scotfot.bsky.social
Hazel flower #wildflowerhour
A small bright red flower emerging from a hazel bud
December 7, 2025 at 9:06 PM
Reposted by BSBI Botany
llaisbach.bsky.social
These few braving the rain on Invalid's walk and evading the goats #greatorme #wildflowerhour
December 7, 2025 at 9:47 PM
Reposted by BSBI Botany
bsbiscotland.bsky.social
I came across this amazing thing at Barony mining bing in East Ayrshire, as part of my work for the Eco-museum of Scottish Mining Landscapes, a partnership led by @stir.ac.uk
www.mining-landscapes.org/blog/our-fir...
Our work made #TweetOfTheWeek by The National Lottery Heritage Fund
A screengrab from the National Lottery Heritage Fund Scotland highlighting the Eco-museum of Scottish Mining Landscapes project as their Tweet of the Week. The tweet shows a photograph of me running a treasure hunt activity with children at Barony A-frame, with text advertising a community ambassadors event at the University of Stirling, where I ran a workshop on how to use site-specific ecology to capture the imagination and make post-industrial landscapes places for family fun.
December 8, 2025 at 8:04 AM
Reposted by BSBI Botany
crossborder.bsky.social
Plant ID apps: how useful are they?

In this week's @bsbibotany.bsky.social webinar, Hamlyn Jones demonstrates, reviews & compares free plant ID #apps, and their suitability for different applications - from citizen science to academia.

www.tickettailor.com/events/botan...

@daera-ni.gov.uk #plants
Photo credit: 'Bulbous Buttercup (Ranunculus bulbosus), Dunnet Links, Caithness' by Alistair Whyte
December 8, 2025 at 1:49 PM
Reposted by BSBI Botany
roguenaturalist.bsky.social
Missed #wildflowerhour last night but here are a couple of flowering plants from today's lunchtime walk.

Green Alkanet (Pentaglottis sempervirens) and Greater Periwinkle (Vinca major).

@bsbibotany.bsky.social
@wildflowerhour.bsky.social

#Winter10 #wildflowers #nature
#botany #wildlife #winter
December 8, 2025 at 1:38 PM
bsbibotany.bsky.social
Well done everyone who managed to find some wild plants to photograph in bloom this week after such wet weather.
Congrats also to the little blooming plants!
How many of them will manage to keep flowering through December & right up to #NewYearPlantHunt?
Let's catch up next Sunday & compare notes!
mycofille.bsky.social mycofille.bsky.social @mycofille.bsky.social · 2d
Two Fumitories (Tall Ramping and White Ramping, which each grow in these locations), Cow Parsley, Sweet Violet and Dog’s Mercury included in #thewinter10 for #wildflowerhour today
A collage showing Dog’s Mercury, Sea Campion, Winter Heliotrope, Tall Ramping Fumitory, Sea Mayweed, Sweet Violet, White Ramping Fumitory, Nipplewort, Borage and Cow Parsley flowers
December 7, 2025 at 9:04 PM
Reposted by BSBI Botany
sarahsramblings.bsky.social
Two from the local churchyard Greater Perriwinkle and Meadow Buttercup #WildFlowerHour
December 7, 2025 at 8:50 PM
Reposted by BSBI Botany
jkilby.bsky.social
On a day full of grey skies and mud, love is still in fashion.
#Wildflowerhour
December 7, 2025 at 8:55 PM
Reposted by BSBI Botany
lightacandle.bsky.social
#WildflowerHour #WildflowerAllotment With the mild autumn corn marigold has been growing and now producing blossoms which seem to be not quite sure whether they should bloom.
December 7, 2025 at 8:42 PM
Reposted by BSBI Botany
sylvatica2024.bsky.social
Scentless Mayweed, a surprise Rough Chervil, and three cornered Leek from north Cornwall today for #wildflowerhour
December 7, 2025 at 8:47 PM
Reposted by BSBI Botany
henk-janvdveen.bsky.social
With the mild weather (14°C today), some of my garden plants are starting to bloom again. For this week’s #WildflowerHour, I’ve got a #TheWinter10 mix of wild and garden flowers! 🌿✨
December 7, 2025 at 8:48 PM
Reposted by BSBI Botany
sylvatica2024.bsky.social
Alexander’s, Gorse, Hedge Woundwort and Hogweed flowering near Port Isaac in Cornwall today. Very wet and windy day though.
#wildflowerhour
December 7, 2025 at 8:48 PM
bsbibotany.bsky.social
A timely reminder from the fabulous @trevorthebotanist.bsky.social: even common plants like Red Clover can be mind-blowingly gorgeous when you zoom in and take a really good look at them!
Who needs orchids when we have clovers?
Ok don't tell @thenewgalaxy.bsky.social we said that...
#WildFlowerHour
trevorthebotanist.bsky.social TrevorTheBotanist @trevorthebotanist.bsky.social · 2d
Red Clover in our meadow, oblivious to the foul December weather. Love getting really up-close-and-personal with this one, as the tiny flowers are almost orchid-like in their design #wildflowerhour
December 7, 2025 at 8:46 PM
Reposted by BSBI Botany
lightacandle.bsky.social
#WildflowerHour #WildflowerAllotment More Field Woundwort though taller and with purple flowers.
December 7, 2025 at 8:29 PM
Reposted by BSBI Botany
lauramckee.bsky.social
Dogwood berries in the rain for #WildflowerHour
Black dogwood berries in rain, red stems.
December 7, 2025 at 8:38 PM
Reposted by BSBI Botany
jillwhitelock.bsky.social
A pretty pink Yarrow flowering in Ely. #WildflowerHour
A Yarrow with mid to dark pink flowers next to some brown grass, against a blurred background.
December 7, 2025 at 8:38 PM