Very little scope for botanising this week due to the small matter of moving house. So just this lovely Thale Cress for this week's #WildflowerHour
#CabbageFamily

Petition: Require all think tanks to disclose their donors, funding, and media spending Research bodies and representation of specialist interests is important when making policy. However, think tanks go beyond merely brainstorming ideas and presenting data and arguments. They can push s...

Just seen, and immediately signed this one:

petition.parliament.uk/petitions/75...

Moschatel Adoxa moschatellina RSPB Mersehead

Is there a more exquisite woodland plant than Moschatel? I'm not sure there is. It's a species I don't see all that often and so it was a nice bonus to see such swathes of it at #RSPB Mersehead
#WildflowerHour
#WoodlandPlants
#Moschatel
#Mersehead
@rspbscotland.bsky.social

Carex digitata, Gait Barrows NNR

Fingered Sedge, Carex digitata. A plant of limestone woodlands and other limestone habitats. Already in profusion at Gait Barrows NNR, Lancashire.
#WildflowerHour
#WoodlandPlants

Thank you

Salix caprea, Goat Wilow

Goat #Willow, Salix caprea. A week late for the #WildflowerHour #TreeFlowers challenge (and appropriately therefore late for #WildflowerHour too)

Common Cotton-grass, Eriophorum vaginatum

Common Cotton-grass, Eriophorum vaginatum. Just starting to come in to flower on Barclye Moor, Wood of Cree.
#WildflowerHour
#RSPB
@rspbscotland.bsky.social

Saxifraga tridactylites Rue-leaved Saxifrage Arnside

Saxifraga tridactylites Rue-leaved Saxifrage Helsington Barrows

We're just coming in to peak Saxifraga tridactylites season now.
Late for #WildflowerHour
#Arnside railway embankment & Helsington Barrows
#Cumbria

Hardly a tree but I'm counting it for the #TreeFlowers challenge nonetheless.
Broom, Cytisus scoparius.
#WildflowerHour at #RSPB Old Moor Nature Reserve.
#Spring

It's a very nice plant.

Thale Cress, Arabidopsis thaliana. Westmorland General Hospital car park

Thale Cress, Arabidopsis thaliana. Westmorland General Hospital car park

Thale Cress is a fascinating species. Much studied genetically due to the combination of a small genone and short lifecycle. It has certainly gone from seedling to fruit stage very quickly this year.
Here growing in the car park of #Westmorland General Hospital #Kendal
#WildflowerHour

Colt's-foot, Tussilago farfara. RSPB Old Moor Nature Reserve

A lovely display of Colt's-foot, Tussilago farfara at #RSPB Old Moor this week.
#WildflowerHour in the Dearne Valley, South #Yorkshire

Blackthorn, Prunus spinosa & Gorse, Ulex europaeus in flower at RSPB Old Moor

A magnificent spring show at RSPB Old Moor Nature Reserve, Blackthorn & Gorse.
#WildflowerHour
#TreeFlowers
#Spring
#RSPB
#OldMoor
@rspbengland.bsky.social

Grey Wagtail River Dove, Peak District

River Dove, Peak District

I've enjoyed watching Dippers & Grey Wagtails on the River Dove this weekend. Loads of Chiffchaffs singing, occasional Curlews & Skylark & a fair bit of raptor action too. Its not a bad time of year.

Butterbur, Petasites hybridus & Opposite-leaved Golden-saxifrage, Chrysosplenium oppositifolium

Butterbur, Petasites hybridus & Opposite-leaved Golden-saxifrage,
Chrysosplenium oppositifolium, adding some colour to the banks of the River Dove in the #PeakDistrict #NationalPark
#wildflowerhour

Ivy-leaved Speedwell, Veronica hederifolia

Ivy-leaved Speedwell,
Veronica hederifolia subspecies lucorum with it's tiny, lilac flowers, blunt-lobed leaves & whitish anthers, the latter not 📷
Both subspecies are #archaeophytes in Britain.
#wildflowerhour

Saxifraga tridactylites, in flower, Manifold Valley (Peak District National Park)

Rue-leaved Saxifrage, Saxifraga tridactylites is one species you can never tire of finding.
Here, above Thor's Cave in the Manifold Valley.
#wildflowerhour

Erophila verna Peak District limestone grassland

Erophila verna, Common Whitlowgrass 💚
On the Carboniferous limestones of the White Peak.
#wildflowerhour in the #PeakDistrict National Park.

Viola reichenbachiana, Early Dog-violet

Early Dog-violet, Viola reichenbachiana.
Still my favourite #botanical binomial. What a name that is.
#wildflowerhour
#Etymology

Viola odorata Milldale, Peak District

Sweet Violet, Viola odorata for #wildflowerhour
Milldale, #PeakDistrict

Luzula campestris Field Woodrush

My first Field Woodrush of the year. Good Friday Grass is pretty much always out well ahead of Good Friday these days, even when Easter is early. Another signs of the shifting patterns of nature because of what we have done, & continue to do, to the earth's atmosphere.
#wildflowerhour
#Phenology

Opposite-leaved Golden-saxifrage, Chrysosplenium oppositifolium

Opposite-leaved Golden-saxifrage,
Chrysosplenium oppositifolium apparently has the longest common name & scientific binomial in British botany.
I can't remember who I learnt this from but it was almost certainly via #wildflowerhour
#botany
#etymology
@bsbibotany.bsky.social

This whole concept in LOTR is one of my favourite parts of the whole book. “Evil fucks up because evil people fundamentally cannot imagine that others are not motivated by the same things as them” is another theme that feels relevant right now

Who funds Reform?

Greens will never take dirty money - our members power our party.

People and planet remain our only vested interests.

Join.greenparty.org.uk

Zack Polanski vows rent controls as Green Party makes major push to seize London The Green Party leader unveiled his plan to end ‘rip-off Britain’ during a speech in Wood Green

One in six private renters is now renting a former council home, often at extortionate rates – and often partly paid for by the government in the form of housing benefit.

It's not just deeply unfair - it economically doesn't make any sense.

www.standard.co.uk/news/politic...

Welsh wader survey gets underway A survey of breeding waders began this week across Wales, with hundreds of sites to be visited in the coming weeks, organised by Natural Resources Wales. Surveyors will be looking and listening...

A national survey of breeding waders is underway in #Wales, organised by @natreswales.bsky.social. All records of Curlews and Lapwings in potential breeding habitat are valuable, so please do share your knowledge via @cofnod.org.uk.

📷 Cameron Sharp

www.birdnotes.wales/blog/welsh-w...

Prunus cerasifera (Cherry Plum), again for #wildflowerhour
An excellent early nectar source. Gait Barrows #NNR, Silverdale

Always an early-season highlight for me, Danish Scurvygrass, Cochlearia danica
#wildflowerhour at #Arnside #Railway Station, #Cumbria

White flowers for #wildflowerhour
- Danish Scurvygrass, Common Whitlowgrass,Thale Cress, Wavy Bittercress, Common Mouse-ear & Cherry Plum
#spring
#Cumbria #Lancashire
#Arnside #Silverdale

#Wildflowerhour #Signsofspring. One of my favourite spring flowers is Yellow Star Of Bethlehem (Gagea lutea) seen in Cumbria this week.