Martin
@botanicalmartin.bsky.social
currently writing 'Finding England's Ancient Grassland'
Botanical surveyor and artist based in the Tees Valley, England.
If it's about plants, I'll be interested.
http://theintermingledpot.wordpress.com
Botanical surveyor and artist based in the Tees Valley, England.
If it's about plants, I'll be interested.
http://theintermingledpot.wordpress.com
Some spindles from last week's road verge on the North York Moors which I think are Golden Spindles (Clavulinopsis fusiformis)
October 25, 2025 at 9:15 PM
Some spindles from last week's road verge on the North York Moors which I think are Golden Spindles (Clavulinopsis fusiformis)
Occasionally keep finding hairy versions of Heather and so popping it on here so I can search for it if I need to.
I can find it listed as Calluna vulgaris (L.) Hull var. hirsuta (Waitz) S.F. Gray but Stace 2019 doesn't include it; a (recessive) mutation a bit like white flowers but less common?
I can find it listed as Calluna vulgaris (L.) Hull var. hirsuta (Waitz) S.F. Gray but Stace 2019 doesn't include it; a (recessive) mutation a bit like white flowers but less common?
October 25, 2025 at 9:05 PM
Occasionally keep finding hairy versions of Heather and so popping it on here so I can search for it if I need to.
I can find it listed as Calluna vulgaris (L.) Hull var. hirsuta (Waitz) S.F. Gray but Stace 2019 doesn't include it; a (recessive) mutation a bit like white flowers but less common?
I can find it listed as Calluna vulgaris (L.) Hull var. hirsuta (Waitz) S.F. Gray but Stace 2019 doesn't include it; a (recessive) mutation a bit like white flowers but less common?
Fabulous young little red Blackening Waxcap growing on a road verge on the North York Moors
October 20, 2025 at 9:17 PM
Fabulous young little red Blackening Waxcap growing on a road verge on the North York Moors
A Bolete from the weekend, where I managed to include the stem in the photo only to find when I look at it on the computer screen that it's white because something has eaten the surface off and it should be brown and stripy like the smaller one.
October 20, 2025 at 9:15 PM
A Bolete from the weekend, where I managed to include the stem in the photo only to find when I look at it on the computer screen that it's white because something has eaten the surface off and it should be brown and stripy like the smaller one.
Alpine Cotula (Cotula alpina) is currently a fairly rare non-native though abundant on some road verges on the North York Moors & probably spreading. Didn't seem to be adversely affecting the fungi which is good. #WildFlowerHour
Link to BSBI Atlas - plantatlas2020.org/atlas/2cd4p9...
Link to BSBI Atlas - plantatlas2020.org/atlas/2cd4p9...
October 19, 2025 at 7:27 PM
Alpine Cotula (Cotula alpina) is currently a fairly rare non-native though abundant on some road verges on the North York Moors & probably spreading. Didn't seem to be adversely affecting the fungi which is good. #WildFlowerHour
Link to BSBI Atlas - plantatlas2020.org/atlas/2cd4p9...
Link to BSBI Atlas - plantatlas2020.org/atlas/2cd4p9...
Bell Heather was still flowering up on the North York Moors, as was Cross-leaved Heath which was looking prettier ... but I forgot to photograph it. #WildFlowerHour
October 19, 2025 at 7:26 PM
Bell Heather was still flowering up on the North York Moors, as was Cross-leaved Heath which was looking prettier ... but I forgot to photograph it. #WildFlowerHour
Some interesting earth tongues of different shapes, and a photo with a rabbit poo for scale. All on a grassy moorland road verge growing with some waxcaps yesterday.
With @wonkyeggs.bsky.social who did all the digital recording because I (🙄)hadn't downloaded the @plantlifeuk.bsky.social waxcap app
With @wonkyeggs.bsky.social who did all the digital recording because I (🙄)hadn't downloaded the @plantlifeuk.bsky.social waxcap app
October 19, 2025 at 6:50 PM
Some interesting earth tongues of different shapes, and a photo with a rabbit poo for scale. All on a grassy moorland road verge growing with some waxcaps yesterday.
With @wonkyeggs.bsky.social who did all the digital recording because I (🙄)hadn't downloaded the @plantlifeuk.bsky.social waxcap app
With @wonkyeggs.bsky.social who did all the digital recording because I (🙄)hadn't downloaded the @plantlifeuk.bsky.social waxcap app
At this time of year I usually see lots of fungi that I can't name but I saw this and thought it was a Penny Bun!* because from above it literally looks like an egg-glazed bread bun.
*Now I check it could also be Bitter Bolete** (I didn't photo the right bits). Either way, it was fun to find
*Now I check it could also be Bitter Bolete** (I didn't photo the right bits). Either way, it was fun to find
October 16, 2025 at 8:55 PM
At this time of year I usually see lots of fungi that I can't name but I saw this and thought it was a Penny Bun!* because from above it literally looks like an egg-glazed bread bun.
*Now I check it could also be Bitter Bolete** (I didn't photo the right bits). Either way, it was fun to find
*Now I check it could also be Bitter Bolete** (I didn't photo the right bits). Either way, it was fun to find
There was also a Parrot waxcap which was not so easy to find ...
October 16, 2025 at 8:47 PM
There was also a Parrot waxcap which was not so easy to find ...
Some Blackening Waxcap fungi from a local churchyard from last week - quite easy to spot in the grass and ID when they turn black
October 16, 2025 at 8:44 PM
Some Blackening Waxcap fungi from a local churchyard from last week - quite easy to spot in the grass and ID when they turn black
Had a quick internet about the Waxcap fungi and the issue is not lack of knowledge (therefore problem is political will/money) as an English Nature (!) Report from 2003 "Twelve sites fulfil waxcap criteria...for sites of international importance. A further thirty-two sites fulfil these criteria for
September 17, 2025 at 8:53 PM
Had a quick internet about the Waxcap fungi and the issue is not lack of knowledge (therefore problem is political will/money) as an English Nature (!) Report from 2003 "Twelve sites fulfil waxcap criteria...for sites of international importance. A further thirty-two sites fulfil these criteria for
For my #FavouritePlant this year I think I'll go for Great Burnet which is always a joy to see - here in full flower at the end of August in its upland habitat, growing with Devil's-bit Scabious and Tormentil #WildflowerHour
September 14, 2025 at 8:05 PM
For my #FavouritePlant this year I think I'll go for Great Burnet which is always a joy to see - here in full flower at the end of August in its upland habitat, growing with Devil's-bit Scabious and Tormentil #WildflowerHour
Grass-of-Parnassus putting on a lovely show today at a SSSI in the Yorkshire Dales #WildflowerHour
September 14, 2025 at 7:58 PM
Grass-of-Parnassus putting on a lovely show today at a SSSI in the Yorkshire Dales #WildflowerHour
There doesn't seem to be a record for that meadow saffron on the BSBI database so it looks like you have found something new! Can you send a record into the BSBI database at all?
September 7, 2025 at 7:48 PM
There doesn't seem to be a record for that meadow saffron on the BSBI database so it looks like you have found something new! Can you send a record into the BSBI database at all?
Stopped to take a photo of this Harebell flower because it was so open and upright-facing, not noddy and bell-like in the way that they usually look. Just natural variation in flower-shape as far as I know. #WildflowerHour
September 7, 2025 at 7:29 PM
Stopped to take a photo of this Harebell flower because it was so open and upright-facing, not noddy and bell-like in the way that they usually look. Just natural variation in flower-shape as far as I know. #WildflowerHour
Also at Littlewood Local Nature Reserve a very tiny Common Knapweed (model's own thumb for scale), probably tiny because thin soil, low in nutrients, and such a droughty year. #WildflowerHour
September 7, 2025 at 7:22 PM
Also at Littlewood Local Nature Reserve a very tiny Common Knapweed (model's own thumb for scale), probably tiny because thin soil, low in nutrients, and such a droughty year. #WildflowerHour
First time I've seen Basil Thyme (Clinopodium acinos) in the wild this week and it was tiny (rabbit poo for scale in the first photo). At Littlewood Local Nature Reserve near Cassop (visit suggested by @wonkyeggs.bsky.social ) #WildflowerHour
September 7, 2025 at 7:19 PM
First time I've seen Basil Thyme (Clinopodium acinos) in the wild this week and it was tiny (rabbit poo for scale in the first photo). At Littlewood Local Nature Reserve near Cassop (visit suggested by @wonkyeggs.bsky.social ) #WildflowerHour
For the #SeedHeads challenge, some Sea Plantain growing in calcareous grassland in a National Nature Reserve in the middle of Durham - which feels weird because you can't even see the sea, but is apparently normal. #WildflowerHour
see plantatlas2020.org/atlas/2cd4p9...
see plantatlas2020.org/atlas/2cd4p9...
September 7, 2025 at 7:13 PM
For the #SeedHeads challenge, some Sea Plantain growing in calcareous grassland in a National Nature Reserve in the middle of Durham - which feels weird because you can't even see the sea, but is apparently normal. #WildflowerHour
see plantatlas2020.org/atlas/2cd4p9...
see plantatlas2020.org/atlas/2cd4p9...
Cow pat question. How much variation is there in how long a cow-pat takes to break down? I think these must be from the spring before the Cowslips & Blue Moor-grass flowered, late-March? ...which seems like a long time to still be there?
September 6, 2025 at 7:18 PM
Cow pat question. How much variation is there in how long a cow-pat takes to break down? I think these must be from the spring before the Cowslips & Blue Moor-grass flowered, late-March? ...which seems like a long time to still be there?
Lots of black rosehips on a Burnet Rose bush at one of the National Nature Reserves in Durham today
September 5, 2025 at 7:27 PM
Lots of black rosehips on a Burnet Rose bush at one of the National Nature Reserves in Durham today
Saw lots of tiny Eyebright plants with tiny leaves but relatively huge flowers out of proportion & was pleasantly amazed that they could do such a thing ... only later occurring to me that it was cos they were parasitically taking the energy/food to do it from a neighbouring plant 😬. Still amazed😍.
September 4, 2025 at 9:22 PM
Saw lots of tiny Eyebright plants with tiny leaves but relatively huge flowers out of proportion & was pleasantly amazed that they could do such a thing ... only later occurring to me that it was cos they were parasitically taking the energy/food to do it from a neighbouring plant 😬. Still amazed😍.
thank you Mark that makes it clear - we'll record it as that @wonkyeggs.bsky.social . I've enlarged the flowers below for anyone else reading this thread
September 3, 2025 at 7:57 PM
thank you Mark that makes it clear - we'll record it as that @wonkyeggs.bsky.social . I've enlarged the flowers below for anyone else reading this thread
Thought this pale-yellow flowered Bedstraw might be the hybrid between Hedge and Lady's Bedstraw (of which the latter was all over the site and very yellow;pic) but it wasn't particularly vigorous and there were no plants of Hedge Bedstraw to be seen🤔. Found by @wonkyeggs.bsky.social
September 3, 2025 at 7:07 PM
Thought this pale-yellow flowered Bedstraw might be the hybrid between Hedge and Lady's Bedstraw (of which the latter was all over the site and very yellow;pic) but it wasn't particularly vigorous and there were no plants of Hedge Bedstraw to be seen🤔. Found by @wonkyeggs.bsky.social
Lots of Autumn Gentian in flower although many of the plants were very small, and occasionally a very pale blue one #WildflowerHour
August 31, 2025 at 7:18 PM
Lots of Autumn Gentian in flower although many of the plants were very small, and occasionally a very pale blue one #WildflowerHour
Lovely surprise to find a Dark-red Helleborine in flower* this week #WildflowerHour
*no I don't know why either, probably just a random thing because there was only the one
*no I don't know why either, probably just a random thing because there was only the one
August 31, 2025 at 7:15 PM
Lovely surprise to find a Dark-red Helleborine in flower* this week #WildflowerHour
*no I don't know why either, probably just a random thing because there was only the one
*no I don't know why either, probably just a random thing because there was only the one