Found Juncus pygmaeusm Ophioglossum luscitanicum, Cicendia filiformis, and lots more today. It's a fab place. When I get my records together I'll send some details.

Roadside pool, 15×15 m, growing 10–20 cm deep
pH 7.95, cond. 2576 µS cm⁻¹, ~5% cover
With Typha domingensis, Bolboschoenus maritimus, Samolus valerandi, Pulicaria dysenterica, Glyceria, Ranunculus subgenus Batrachium.
Narrow niche, & one that’s declining. A threatened species across much of Europe.

Really pleased to find in Menorca this week: Chara galioides in a small coastal pool.
Under the lens: bright orange antheridia standing out against a relatively delicate thallus. Garish against the brilliant blue sky.
Shallow, slightly brackish systems are very specialist habitats.

I was glad to have waders on or else I would have had very soggy knees.

I wasn't even looking for it! I was on my way to a survey and thought it odd there was a broad-leaved thingy in a soggy depression.

Creeping Willow (Salix repens) is super-miniaturised on the New Forest lawns.
This is so beautiful at this time of year ♥️🌿
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Small Adder's-tongue (Ophioglossum azoricum) today in the New Forest. About 1 cm tall!
Growing in a winter-wet track depression with Lesser Spearwort (Ranunculus flammula).
It has a remarkable 480 chromosomes. So cool 😎
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#CowslipChallenge #WildflowerHour
Ivinghoe Beacon
We tend to think of grassland as “open”, but it has a canopy which is also seasonal.
Cowslip (Primula veris) peaks before the sward closes, much as Primrose (Primula vulgaris) does before woodland leaf-out.

The strategy is to beat the canopy.

I use my phone. The only real issue I get is the lenses getting dirty because you have to take it apart- but the design is simple and you can completely disassemble it. The seal at the base- I replaced this with felt as the rubber had perished.

The only thing is that it looks a bit like a bomb which is not great for going through scanners.

I've got a Meopta portable field microscope which weighs under 1 kg. Its fitted with a graticule so I can measure things. Goes down to x 200 which is good for lots of things.

Despite the cold temperatures, a Crete Festoon (Zerynthia cretica) and a Lily Weevil (Brachycerus sp.).

And with my feet wet again...
Bellis annua, Isolepis cernua, Stuckenia pectinata, Zygnema species, possibly leiospermum 😀I brought along my microscope.
Vaucheria canalicularis and V. taylorii.

Iris unguicularis ssp. cretensis, Ophrys heldreichii, Cytinus ruber, Ophrys sicula

Cynoglossum columnae, Thymelaea tarton-raira, Himantoglossum robertianum, Orchis pauciflora

Onosma graeca, Ophrys bombyliflora, Ophrys cretica, Euphorbia acanthothamnos

Orchis quadripunctata, Valeriana asarifolia, Fumaria macrocarpa, Cyclamen creticum

Naked-man Orchid (Orchis italica), Greater Honeywort (Cerinthe major), Anchusa variegata (in the Borage family), Ophrys tenthredinifera.

Some very lovely plants I found last week in Crete. What an amazing place to botanise!

Tulipa saxatilis, Muscari spreitzenhoferi, Anacamptis papilionacea, Silene colorata

Well, here it is- an amazingly well-adapted plant!

Isoetes phrygia -a Quillwort.
A geophyte persisting as a corm, sitting right in that moving drawdown zone. I ♥️ Mediterranean temporary ponds.
As far as we know, this is the only known location globally. Thankfully I brought my gps 😀

Interesting contrasts and parallels with Pilularia as well.

I looked at an Isoetes while I was in Crete on holiday & under full inundation it forms a near-continuous marginal band.
Mapping suggests ~2,500 plants rather than ~30 previous, so detectability/hydrology story. A geophyte persisting as a corm- a neat drawdown strategy.
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Hope you are OK.

Glorious flower-filled meadow edges in Crete, despite the strong winds, hail, and a cold snap.
Bent against the wind Anemone coronaria.

It struck me how ponds support bryophytes in two quite different ways:
• older ponds creating humid woodland conditions for epiphytic and bank mosses.
• new ponds providing bare ground for pioneer species.
Both important for bryophyte richness.

Suspicious frogspawn. Possibly a crime scene and evidence consumed.

Aneura pinguis growing around the newly created balancing pond beyond the car park.
With lots of Didymodon tophaceus.

Surrounding Johnston’s Pond: seemly favourable humidity for species such as Cirriphyllum crassinervium. This, I find is easy to dismiss for Hypnum.

Wimpole Hall on Saturday with the Cambs Bryologists.

Pulvigera lyellii on Ash with two small capsule-like structures present, possibly insect egg cases. I don’t think a lichenicolous basidiomycete. A second sample with similarly positioned "pearls."

Anyone have any ideas?
Lacewing?

Viola odorata var. dumetorum at the woodland edges. Yesterday at the Wimpole Estate in Cambs.
#WhiteFlowers #wildflowerhour @bsbibotany.bsky.social