Their leaves can root??

Rewilding Cringleford Valuing scrub habitat in a suburban village subject to ongoing housing development.

storvaxt.blogspot.com/2025/10/rewi...

A lawn of rough grass with sticks marking the positions of Cuckoo Flowers. The sticks have red painted tops.

Two Cuckoo Flowers Cardamine pratensis pictured against long grasses and Cow Parsley leaves.

Always a joy to see.
I'm labelling mine to make sure I don't mow them or inadvertantly trample them on my way to the woodshed in the dark.

Definitely !!

A large spreading Dandelion rosette with a man's size 11 boot for scale. It is seen against a background of dead brown Beech leaves.

A large, flat Dandelion leaf with pale green mid rib and broad mucronate terminal lobe. The side lobes have convex front edges decorated with a few teeth.

The head of a dandelion seen from underneath. Its ligules have yellow teeth at the tip, and markedly dark grey-streaked undersides. The inner bracts in which the flower head sits are dark green and spreading while the outer bracts are recurved and have pale green uppersides and dark green undersides.

A stonking great Dandelion plant under beech at Cranwich in Thetford Forest. A really Trumpian specimen. Could it be Taraxacum laticordatum (Richards #140). #wildflowerhour

A butterfly catching sunlight on a sprig of dark green gorse. Its wings are closed, to show a pastel green hind wing fringed with pale brown and its fore wing of pale green grading into pale brown. The wing edges are feathered conveying a soft brush effect. It has spotted antennae.

My first ever Green Hairstreak - an enchanting insect flitting about with Brimstone, Orange-tip & Holly Blue in the forest glades at Cranwich yesterday.
#Norfolk #butterflies @norfolknats.bsky.social

It's International Dark Sky Week. Reflect Orbital proposes using mirrors mounted on thousands of satellites to reflect sunlight down to Earth at night. Those threats to dark skies would introduce significant ecological, human health, safety, and astronomical risks at a global scale.

And only the white sheep are sometimes seen
Cross and recross the strips of moon-blanch'd green,
Come, shepherd, and again begin the quest!

(Matthew Arnold. 'The Scholar Gypsy', 1853)

Go, for they call you, shepherd, from the hill;
Go, shepherd, and untie the wattled cotes!
No longer leave thy wistful flock unfed,
Nor let thy bawling fellows rack their throats,
Nor the cropp'd herbage shoot another head.
But when the fields are still,
And the tired men and dogs all gone to rest,

A view of a wide sugar beet field with trees, hedges and a church tower in the distance. There are some arable weeds including Poppy and Mayweed in the foreground. Image courtesy Google Maps 2023.

Our old keeper Wop Garnham (b.1906) said his grandfather was a shepherd in the fields at Oakley, presumably c.1860s. He used his old smock as dog bedding.
The fields are now open arable with only the church and a distant wood to anchor the view.

Thanks, I now understand more about the Wopworld.
🧵

Farmers can make more from solar farming on their land than they can from arable or pastoral. Reasons? price gouging by supermarkets; free marketeer governments; global agric commodity prices. People want increasing amounts of electricity. Farmers want dependable income for 30+ years. Solar is good.

MPs demand action on Britain’s oil industry tax haven as war profits soar Politicians have called on the government to end what one called “an industrialised tax avoidance scheme”.

A cross party group of MPs including @labourlewis.bsky.social, Lib Dem @andrewgeorge00.bsky.social and Green @elliechowns.bsky.social have demanded action against a British tax haven helping oil companies dodge tax on their record profits:

open.substack.com/pub/abolishw...

Thank you for fighting on our behalf, Adrian.

A vital system of Atlantic Ocean currents is weakening and closer to collapse than thought, new studies find | CNN New research provides alarming evidence this ocean circulation is slowing and could be heading toward a shutdown, which would have catastrophic impacts on the planet’s weather and climate.

New study: most climate models underestimate the decline of the Atlantic overturning circulation #AMOC. The AMOC is on course to slow by more than 50% by the end of the century. 🌊
Very likely the AMOC will then be past the tipping point for full shutdown. 😨
us.cnn.com/2026/04/16/c...

A gnarled and knobbly chunk of rock on an aquamarine blue painted table. It is composed of layers of prehistoric algal mat.

A gnarled and knobbly chunk of rock on an aquamarine blue painted table. It is composed of layers of prehistoric algal mat.

Close-up view of a gnarled and knobbly chunk of rock on an aquamarine blue painted table. It is composed of layers of prehistoric algal mat which look rather like melted wax.

Microbial Earth mysteries.
A water-worn lump of Carboniferous stromatolite from Burntisland, Fife - probably silicified in a hot pool generated by volcanic activity - Viséan age, about 340,000,000 years old, from near the Equator.
#FossilFriday @scottishgeology.bsky.social #geology #Scotland

Thanks for sharing an interesting article. I have just started on 'The Ascent of Birds' by John Reilly.

Underneath the headline 'WeBS Site Insight: Scoulton Mere, Norfolk’ is an image of two adult Mallards, one male and one female on calm water, with a map of the site boundary and location within the UK. The WeBS logo is beneath with the text ‘ Join WeBS - Can you help count waterbirds here?’

Are you a birder in Norfolk? We are looking for a volunteer to count Scoulton Mere, between Watton and Hingham as it hasn’t been counted since 1976! If you think you can help please contact us
via the "Contact the Local Organiser" button at
app.bto.org/websonline/s...

#Ornithology #NorfolkBirding

(PDF) An illustrated key to the Cheilosia Meigen, 1822 (Diptera, Syrphidae) of Europe PDF | An identification key to the species of the hover fly genus Cheilosia (Diptera, Syrphidae) occurring in Europe is presented. This is the second... | Find, read and cite all the research you need...

Thanks to Sander Bot for sharing a new (and very well-illustrated) key to Cheilosia hoverflies in Europe - looking forward to trying it out www.researchgate.net/publication/... #flies #diptera @dipteristsforum.bsky.social

"If the election is for a county council, its main responsibilities are social care and health, highways and transport, education, waste management and the environment, and public safety."
Popular misconceptions abound about just what a County Councillor can try to fix.

<They frequently appear in wastewater and can end up in biosolid fertilizer, also called sewage sludge, which is produced during wastewater treatment. The researchers believe the MCCPs they detected in Oklahoma likely originated from nearby fields where this type of fertilizer had been applied.>

REVEALED: How Britain is shielding big oil's Iran war windfall Long read: Britain and its offshore territories are at the centre of oil industry tax avoidance

open.substack.com/pub/abolishw...

The air is full of DNA — here’s what scientists are using it for Airborne genetic material can be used to paint a picture of ecosystem health, watch for invasive species and even identify humans.

Scientists have long pulled DNA from water and soil, but they have only just started to see the air as a source of genetic information
go.nature.com/4suCiwd

GB hectad distribution map for Argiope bruennichi from the new SRS Atlas

GB hectad distribution map for Erigone welchi from the new SRS Atlas

Our new Atlas of UK spider, harvestmen and pseudoscorpion records is now online at britishspiders.org.uk/atlas. It gives access to 1.6 million records and is constantly updated with data submitted and verified via irecord.org.uk/enter-srs-records.

Thanks!

A neat little spider (< 1 cm long) out & about with his 'boxing gloves' hoping to charm a mate.
(Oakley, Suffolk)
ObsIdentify says Neriene montana of the Liniphyiidae.
Is that okay?
@britishspiders.bsky.social @suffolk-nats1929.bsky.social

The rounded leaves of Chrysosplenium oppositifolium interspersed with its small yellowish-green flowers. The plant is growing in greyish brown earth.

Opposite-leaved Golden-Saxifrage enjoying a damp patch in Freston Wood, Suffolk.
#WildflowerHour

A 19th century grave graced with a red brick roof patterned with mosses and lichens.

Diploicia canescens lichen with overlapping grey thalli on a grey flint in the church wall.

Apothecia of grey Lecanora dispersa lichen attractively sprinkled over a surface of brown London Clay mudstone.

Cloudy grey crustose cortex of Aspicilia calcarea on a limestone surface.

Lichens at Freston churchyard, Suffolk - a diversion for Suffolk Flora Group members.
* Diploicia canescens. * Lecanora dispersa. * Aspicilia calcarea.
Among others, building fascinating micro-worlds on old stone.
@aspenecology.com @suffolk-nats1929.bsky.social

I gave a talk on Friday about the geological evolution of Mousehold to Thorpe History Group. An astonishing 78 people came! Age cohort: mostly over 50: clearly people able to tear themselves from home & TV & screens, to socialise and help build convivial, local society.

John Sell Cotman 'Mousehold Heath, Norwich' c.1810 Norwich Castle Museum and Art Gallery, Norwich © Norfolk Museums and Archaeology Service This is a watercolour showing an attractive, undulating open heathland landscape with a sandy road snaking across it and severa cattle and people walking on it. A man and woman are standing nearby on the left. The clouded sky is looking a bit patchy.

Mousehold Heath - how many cities contain such a wonderful wildspace within their boundaries?
Here is a gem of an art history essay by Sam Smiles @tate.bsky.social about the Heath - www.tate.org.uk/research/in-....
🧵

UK Harvestmen Ecology: Habitats, Adaptations & Roles Explore the ecology of UK harvestmen across ground, vegetation, and subterranean habitats. Learn how their adaptations, behaviours, and microhabitat use shape their roles in ecosystems, and why field observation and recording matter for understanding distribution and change.

🕷️ Level up your harvestmen ID skills!

Join the self-paced Harvestmen of the UK course with Harvestmen Specialist @megabunus.bsky.social

Learn ID, ecology & survey techniques for ONLY £12.50.

📌 Enrol now: courses.biologicalrecording.co.uk/courses/harv...