French animals:

1. Podacris muralis
2. Xylocopa violacea
3. Tettigonia viridissima
4. Anthophora plumipes

French Flowers (Paris/Lyon)

1. Luzula nivea
2. Salvia pratensis
3. Ornithogalum umbellatum
4. Sherardia arvensis

It’s very strange. Found here on acidic boulders with thin layer of soil - fewer than 10 plants or so

Ceratocapnos claviculata from Croslieve Mnt, South Armagh - the county’s only (known) population.

Strangely such a rare plant in Ireland despite plenty of available habitat - one of those botanical mysteries again!

@bsbibotany.bsky.social @bsbiireland.bsky.social

This it?

Few lovely liverworts up on Dá Fhiacail Mhóra in southern Gullion, co. Armagh. The striking Ptilidium ciliare at its only SE Ulster site growing with Marsupella emarginata, Scapania compacta and Bartramia pomoformis as an unusual bryophyte mat community on acidic rock

@bbsbryology.bsky.social

@bsbibotany.bsky.social @bsbiireland.bsky.social

Nice mixture of botanising in March. Exploring Rostrevor Oakwood for old toothwort records (no luck) but met some wych elms in the rocky/mossy woodland

Peatlands Park, Co. Armagh is home (unfortunately) to the pitcher-plant (Sarracenia purpurea), although it is very cool and they were full of bugs!

Both Hymenophyllum species growing together on Sliabh gCuillinn summit, Co. Armagh (H37) in the scree. Associated with liverwort Plagiochila spinulosa, the 1st rec for the mountain. Nice to see some fir clubmosses too.

#botany #ireland #filmyferns

Botanical Society of Britain & Ireland on Reels

Yesterday our Botanical Skills Northern Ireland Team practiced how to use underwater drones to collect under-recorded aquatic plant specimens!
The drone will also be used for our @bsbiireland.bsky.social #AquaticPlantProject & we hope to raise money for a 2nd drone to survey Scottish lochs.

Probably just that, evaporation from the wet moss in the heat of the sun

The moss Dicranum scottianum is endemic to high rainfall regions of Europe & Macaronesia. In this Welsh temperate rainforest it is growing as an epiphyte on Oak. This example also has its own epiphytes - little colonies of cyanobacteria or algae. Plants on plants on plants @bbsbryology.bsky.social

Marchesinia mackaii from south Co. Down growing on the ancient tropical seabed geology - new site record and the 1st record for the county since the 1930s it seems! Neckera complanata in association and a new hectad for that too, more used to seeing it on trees

@bbsbryology.bsky.social

#bryology

Is this genus level or species-specific infection? I have some Fumaria in the garden to check…

Peltigera horizontalis- ancient woodland indicator and quite scarce

Now found in 5 Irish counties as of yesterday from Cos. Louth/Armagh and this marks the first for the east coast!

Phenologically has been recorded In July, September, October and March

#fungifriends #ireland #bryology #liverwort

Marsh Clubmoss (Lycopodiella inundata) shoots creeping across a wet, bare substrate. The shoots are bottle-brush like, bright yellow-green with narrow, untoothed leaves sticking out from the main stem.

A series of Marsh Clubmoss shoots criss-crossing the flush, looking like a group of yellow-green centipedes running across the muddy ground

**BREAKING NEWS** - Marsh Clubmoss refound in Dunbartonshire, at a site where it was last recorded in 1854!

Being more-or-less evergreen, clubmosses make great botanical targets all year round. With that in mind, I set out to hunt for Marsh Clubmoss near Inveraran on the shore of Loch Lomond 🧵

Asplenium ceterach recorded from an old mortared wall in north Co. Louth (H32) - last recorded in this vicinity in 1966!

Find out more about Pyrola rotundifolia subsp. rotundifolia - including where it has been recorded in Ireland - on its #PlantAtlas2020 page:
plantatlas2020.org/atlas/2cd4p9...
This subspecies of Round-leaved Wintergreen has seen an overall "marked decline" since 1930 but we're not entirely sure why.

Plenty of Pyrola rotundifolia subsp. rotundifolia from a wet woodland of this west Monaghan lake - last years flowering spikes can still be seen. A very scarce species in Ireland!

Today’s lunchtime walk:

Butterbur, spindle, young giant hogweed and Carex pendula tufts

Things are starting to stir, botanically!

This week as part of the NI Botanical Skills Project we had three days of Conifer ID with Charles Shier at Castlewellan Arboretum. We covered 20 species likely to be seen as either a native, naturalised or ornamental. A lot of homework to do!

@bsbibotany.bsky.social @bsbiireland.bsky.social

Coillín galánta is ea sin!

Happy to see my two unis Aberystwyth and Queen’s Belfast got through the first round of BUC!

The yellow flowers of American Skunk-cabbage bloom in the bog garden at RHS Harlow Carr

Sea Bindweed, with pink and white trumpet flowers, blooms in a sand-dune on the Sefton Coast

The latest issue of #BritishandIrishBotany is out!
It's our Open Access, online scientific journal.
6 papers inc @bsbiscience.bsky.social on garden escapes, a new hybrid grass, @floodplainmead.bsky.social on Scotland's wet grasslands, a hawkweed, drift seeds & sea bindweed:
bsbi.org/about/news/l...

In Carlingford, Co. Louth**

Porella platyphylla from the mortared walls of the promenade in Co. Louth. Appears to be a first for the Cooley Peninsula and the first record of the liverwort from the county in a few decades!

@bbsbryology.bsky.social

Photo of a moss plant that’s light green in colour. The moss plant is largely covered in a bright orange slime mold that looks like hundreds of tiny grapes all bunched together along the length of the moss plant.

Slime mold on moss. NWT, Canada.
#myxomycete #fungifriends #moss

The lovely liverwort Plagiochila spinulosa growing in there too!

A small leafy liverwort on a twig

A rowan tree in the foreground covered in epiphytes with conifers behind

Feathery green moss on a rock

A boulder stream with conifers on the banks

Colura calyptrifolia on rowan and plentiful Hyocomium armoricum on granite boulders at Yellow Water, Rostrevor, Co. Down

How amazing would this place be if it had some native woodland? Missed opportunity for restoration