Alpine Gentian (Gentiana nivalis) on Ben Lawers - photo by Dan Watson of National Trust for Scotland. This small annual is growing out of a cushion of moss below a grey rock dotted with white crustose lichens and blackish bryophyte tufts. Several shoots lean to the right, ending in closed flower buds except for the tallest shoot, which has an open flower of vivid blue, facing right towards the sunlight.

Species-rich calcareous short turf high on Ben Lawers, with two flowering shoots of Alpine Gentian in the centre, both with open flowers of vivid blue drinking in the sunlight on a fine early August day. The surrounding turf is dominated by Wild Thyme (Thymus drucei), with its pink flowers scattered behind, and two species of lady's-mantle (Alchemilla) leaves growing in the foreground. A beautiful botanical scene.

Day 23 of my botanical #adventcalendar is the diminutive yet delightful Alpine Gentian - an extremely rare alpine, perhaps now only found on Ben Lawers, and assessed as Endangered on the new #GBRedList

Is there a better flower colour than gentian blue? No, there is not... #wildflowerhour

Alpine Saxifrage (Micranthes nivalis), growing on the south-west crags of Ben Lawers. The photo shows a single plant, with a stout reddish stem covered in hairs about 15 cm long, rising from a green basal rosette of leaves to a terminal cluster of open flowers. The inflorescence has a single branch, going off to the right just below the main cluster of flowers, with two flowers held next to the main cluster. Each flower is open, consisting of five spaced petals held upright, their colour ranging from creamy white to flushed pink. The stamens and styles range from green to red, depending on age of the flower, with the youngest on the left of the inflorescence with orange anthers. The basal rosette consists of six spatulate leaves with big marginal teeth; the leaf undersides, not visible in the photo, will have red staining towards the end. Around the plant is bare ground and rock, the stones full of mica schist and shining silvery in the sunshine.

Botanical #adventcalendar Day 20 - the fabulous Alpine Saxifrage, one of my favourite arctic-alpines, on Ben Lawers.

Nationally scarce and now Near Threatened on #GBRedList, finding its distinctive basal rosette or, if you're lucky, that clustered inflorescence is always special!
#wildflowerhour

Wormwood (Artemisia absinthium) growing on Comrie Colliery brownfield site. Three tall grey-green clumps of Wormwood, one in the foreground and two behind, grow erect with long racemes of flowers atop leafy stems. The leaves are very dissected. The surrounding vegetation is much shorter - a mixture of various legumes including clovers, Black Medick and Common Bird's-foot-trefoil, plus short grass, growing on the packed spoil surface of the bing. A few scattered shrubs are seen in the distance, and a track runs across the top right corner of the photo.

A close up of the silvery-grey inflorescence of Wormwood (Artemisia absinthium), showing small composite flowers, pale yellow and nodding on the end of short stalks, arranged up the tops of the stems. These flowers are wind pollinated, so have little in the way of petals to attract insects.

Botanical #adventcalendar Day 19 - Wormwood, growing on an old coal mining site. Rare in Scotland & Endangered on the #GBRedList, this was the 1st record in West Perthshire since 1863!
#wildflowerhour

Great to catch up with top gardening broadcaster Marian Foster on BBC Radio Newcastle today.
We talked about how plant records collected by citizen scientists e.g. during #NewYearPlantHunt & #WildFlowerHour fed into new #GBRedList.
Catch it here 3hrs 28 mins in: www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

Two beautiful spikes of Small-white Orchid (Pseudorchis albida), growing in species-rich calcareous grassland in West Perthshire. The left-hand spike is leaning slightly leftwards, the right-hand spike grows at a 45 degree angle before straightening into an erect spike of flowers. Each flower is creamy with a slight hint of green, exacerbated by the light the photo was taken in, small and nodding at the end of a short green ovary. The yellow-green stems below have erect, adpressed, parallel-sided leaves that come to a blunt point, and lead down to a pair of basal leaves. The two plants are growing with Devil's-bit Scabious (Succisa pratensis) and Yarrow (Achillea millefolium) leaves, and behind them in the short grassland sward an opening Quaking-grass (Briza media) flowerhead can be discerned. Grass and last year's flower stems rise behind the orchids, crossing a moody, clouded sky.

Botanical #adventcalendar Day 13 is this beauty - Small-white #orchid. Assessed as Vulnerable on the #GBRedList, most of the recorded populations across Britain & Ireland have already been lost through habitat destruction
2025 was a good year for this species at the sites that remain #wildflowerhour

Two flowerheads of Devil's-bit Scabious (Succisa pratensis) stand out, almost glowing violet in the centre of the photo. Each flowerhead is a cluster of florets, each with delicate white stamens extending out from the floret, a pinkish-red anther topping them. The blurred background is a morass of rushes, their rich brown heads discernable, and a patch of yellow flowers, probably Greater Bird's-foot-trefoil (Lotus corniculatus). The open rush-pasture is fringed at the back by trees.

Botanical #adventcalendar Day 6 - Devil's-bit Scabious, its blue-violet flowers almost glowing in the dull light. Sensational!

Far more widespread than Day 5's plant, but also assessed as Vulnerable on the #GBRedList as its geographic range has declined by 37% over three generations
#wildflowerhour

Highland Saxifrage (Saxifraga rivularis), a cluster of white flowers atop five-lobed pale-green leaves, protruding from a yellow-green cushion of mosses. The flowers have five white, narrow petals with a hint of green veining at the base, spaced to reveal blunt green sepals between them. The stamens are topped with cream to buff anthers, and the stigmas show as purplish-brown dots in the centre of the flowers. A pinkish rock protrudes into the top-left of the photo, and a rosette of one of Highland Saxifrage's frequent associates - Starry Saxifrage (Micranthes stellaris) - is present but out of focus in the background at the top of the photo.

From lowland bogs to mountain tops for my BAC Day 5 - Highland Saxifrage! This arctic-alpine hides in north-facing gullies above 750m, its presence often given away by a flush of bright green mosses, & is now VU on the new #GBRedList
Pic taken in No. 2 Gully, Ben Nevis North Face #wildflowerhour

We can't conserve things if we don't know they are there!

Old paper records are a treasure trove of info we need to unlock - not just to find out more about past recording, but to inform today's conservation assessments #GBRedList and science... and to help us refind lost plants.

Please help!

Great to work with partners inc @rbgkew.bsky.social & @naturalengland.bsky.social to produce the new #GBRedList for vascular plants.

The bad news: 26% of wild plants are under threat, up from 23% in 2005.

The good news: Conservation action works, as partners @plantlifeuk.bsky.social have shown!

Thanks @freshwaterhabitats.bsky.social for spreading the word that Flat-sedge has gone from Vulnerable on the 2005 #GBRedList to Endangered on the new List.
Find out more about Flat-sedge (gallery, distribution map, why it's declining) on its #PlantAtlas2020 page:
plantatlas2020.org/atlas/2cd4p9...

Rare orchid bought back from brink of extinction The fen orchid is no longer listed as almost extinct in Great British Red List for vascular plants.

Brilliant to see the #GBRedList making a report on CBBC newsround, headlined by the tale of Fen Orchid recovery.
The future of our wonderful plants is in their hands - let's try not to drop the baton before we can hand it over!
www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/ar...
@plantlifeuk.bsky.social

Major revision of #GBRedList of plants published today shows 25% of our native & archaeophyte flora threatened with extinction. Many iconic widespread species classified as threatened for first time including Betony, Marsh Marigold, Devil’s-bit Scabious and Harebell. Another wake-up call for action!

As usual, @markavery.bsky.social has it right. Things are not getting better for our wild plants

The 20-year efforts of #BSBImembers & the botanical community gave us #PlantAtlas2020, which provides the evidence base for much of this #GBRedList assessment.

Your #botany records make a difference!

‘Beautiful yet mercurial’ fen orchid brought back from brink of extinction The orchid’s increasing population in Britain is a bright spot in otherwise ‘stark picture’ for British wild plants, the latest Red List shows.

The story of Fen Orchid is a bright spot in the gloomy picture of the new #GBRedList
@plantlifeuk.bsky.social show that positive conservation actions can make a difference to the threats plants face, highlighted by @emilybeament.bsky.social in @the-independent.com
www.indy100.com/news/beautif...

20 years on from the first #GBRedList for vascular plants - what's changed?
285 taxa have become more threatened.
Critically Endangered up from 35 to 55 taxa, Endangered up from 90 to 117 taxa, Vulnerable up from 220 to 261 taxa 😱☠️

Action needed now! Well done @bsbibotany.bsky.social and partners

Huge thanks to @adamvaughan.bsky.social for his excellent article in today's @thetimes.com about #GBRedList.
Wild plants inc Common Restharrow, Common Rock-rose & Common Milkwort all now classed as Vulnerable - so no longer common!
Download the new Red List:
britishandirishbotany.org/index.php/bi...

PlantAtlas

Nice piece by @emilybeament.bsky.social in @the-independent.com today about #GBRedList, threatened plants & work carried out by @plantlifeuk.bsky.social to conserve Fen Orchid:
www.indy100.com/news/beautif...
More info about Fen Orchid on its #PlantAtlas2020 page: plantatlas2020.org/atlas/2cd4p9...

Today BSBI published the #GBRedList for vascular plants, crucial new evidence to underpin nature conservation and help prioritise future action. Thanks so much to the amazing botanists, partners and funders who have made this possible.

New #GBRedList for vascular plants is out now as a special issue of #BritishandIrishBotany, the @bsbibotany.bsky.social's Open Access scientific journal: britishandirishbotany.org/index.php/bi...
Also available (cost £10) as an eBook: bsbi.org/publications...
Press release: bsbi.org/wp-content/u...

New #GBRedList for vascular plants evaluated 1,720 species.
26% (up from 23% in 2005) assessed as threatened.
Common Restharrow, Marsh-marigold & Harebell: all Vulnerable.
Alpine Gentian: Endangered.
Work was led by Pete Stroh from @bsbibotany.bsky.social & funded by @naturalengland.bsky.social

New #GBRedList for vascular plants is published today by a team led by @bsbibotany.bsky.social with partners @naturalengland.bsky.social @ukceh.bsky.social @naturescot.bsky.social @natreswales.bsky.social @nhm-london.bsky.social @plantlifeintl.bsky.social @rbgkew.bsky.social @thebotanics.bsky.social