Kim L

Thanks to all who joined us in Oxfird Island to celebrate #NPMS10! Between talks, we practiced Wildflower ID, indicators knowledge, hedgerow surveys, and @organicbotanic.bsky.social took us through botanical photography using a camera phone!

I'm delighted that we have a whole range of talks from our Northern Ireland Botanical Skills Project taking place this winter on Tuesday evenings.

Want to learn more about conifers? Rushes? Clubmosses? Hawthorns? Plant Pathogenic Fungi? ROBOTS??

See them all here:
bsbi.org/botanical-sk...

Want to up your #WildFlowerID game this winter?
We just launched our Winter Webinar programme!
7-8pm, every Tuesday from 4 Nov - 10 Feb.
Thanks to funding from @daera-ni.gov.uk, these 10 great plant ID webinars are FREE for all of you to attend!
Programme & booking links: bsbi.org/botanical-sk...

Want to learn more about the National Plant Monitoring Scheme #npms?
Join our 10th anniversary celebrations on volunteer day in Oxford Island, Co Armagh on 25th October (www.tickettailor.com/events/botan...), or in Glenarm, Co Antrim on 6th November (www.tickettailor.com/events/botan...)

Dog walk sightings

#fungi #mushrooms

Yesterday, NI Training Officers Kim and Jo led two groups on a tree Identification walk through Corbie Wood in Lagan Valley Regional Park, Belfast. We got to see the impressive 500-year old Belvoir Oak, amongst many other species of tree - and some beautiful fungi too!

Visited Castlewellan, Co Down, and saw the multistemmed Sequoiadendron giganteum, a redwood grown from seed brought back from California and planted as a single sapling in 1856. It sports an amazing 19 trunks and is absolutely mind-blowing!

Our annual membership special offer opens today!
Join us this month & you'll enjoy 15 months of membership benefits for the price of 12.
Those benefits are so numerous & fabulous you'll have to head over here to see them all:
bsbipublicity.blogspot.com/2025/10/bsbi...
Then join us! bsbi.org/join-us

I was delighted to see the Belvoir Oak yesterday during a visit to Lagan Valley yesterday. This stunning Oak is approx 500 years old, with an 8m girth. An ancient pollarded pedunculate oak, now missing most of its upper branches and its heartwood, it's still putting on a show and producing acorns.

On Saturday, we held a Northern Ireland Recorders Meeting in the Lough Neagh Discovery Centre. From far and wide, recorders came to learn about willow identification and hybrids, then roamed the site, willow-hunting. @bsbibotany.bsky.social @mikekally.bsky.social

Yesterday, we visited @ulsterwildlife.bsky.social 's working farm reserve in Fermanagh with the NIEA Habitats team, carefully exploring around the Marsh Fritillary caterpillar webs in the grasslands, and combing the woods for Yellow Birds Nest Orchid.

On Thursday, NIEA joined us in Fermanagh to study horsetails and hunted for Lesser Twayblade in Lough Nevar Forest Park, as part of our Botanical Skills NI project.

woman holding tape measure in iris field

7 people looking at plot corner of field

7 volunteers with sea in background

2 people on hill walking towards the sea

Fantastic views of Scotland today for Glenarm Wildlife Group NPMS volunteers carrying out the second NPMS survey of the summer with Jo BSBI Training Officer. The cows had already visited plot 4! @bsbibotany.bsky.social

Teams and slides.

🌍🌱🌾🪴🌳🌼🪾Second semi-final Aberdeen 16 versus Eden Project 13 points, so final is Aberdeen versus Plymouth. Botanical University Challenge #BUC2025 Starts 16:00 today 20 August.

I'm at the @bucbotany.bsky.social final today and it's been an absolute nail-biter. Always humbling to see plant ID questions juxtaposed with questions about horticulture, enzymes and genetics. Congratulations to Aberdeen for having the all-round skills to win it!

A glass bowl of yellow and red tomatoes ona wooden chopping board

A number of onions and garlic bulbs lie on a wooden counter

A quick visit to the allotment for some tomatoes and remembered my onions and garlic hadn't been plaited up. A few are starting to bolt, so we'll use those first.

Please Like Share or Subscribe on You Tube to help the Channel Grow Thank You https://www.youtube.com/@wildliferanger7830

A close look at #BlackMedick #Fabaceae #Botany #Wildflower #Flower #Plant #Nature #PlantID #Flowers please help the channel bring another in the series by Like Share or Subscribing on YOU TUBE Coming soon Wild Carrot Teasel Narrow leaved Ragwort & more www.youtube.com/@wildliferan...

100s of you across Britain & Ireland bought a print copy of the latest #BSBIHandbook, Brambles of Scotland (many of the 56 species occur outside Scotland!)
Now you can buy it as a standalone eBook
bsbi.org/publications...
Bramble ID on the go? Holidaying in Scotland? You'll want this eBook! Only £10

They're too quick and don't sit still long enough ☺️

Saw my first Holly Blue today!

Took part in the #BigButterflyCount 2025 yesterday. Recorded the gatekeeper, meadow brown, lots of speckled woods, the large white and a single ringlet.

And that's a wrap, folks! Thanks to everyone who joined us over 4 days of bramble field outings in Northern Ireland with Brambles of Scotland author Angus Hannah and Rubus referee David Earl. We're planning some general rubus training for you to prepare for more exploration next summer!

We visited Slieve Foye in County Louth today to learn about the acidic and base-rich habitats present. As part of the Irish Grasslands Project, Ciaran taught us to ID some of the grasses and sedges vegetatively, always a challenge! @bsbibotany.bsky.social look at those views!

(Round-leaved?) Sundew and Lesser Clubmoss from Slieve Foye today, and Rock Samphire from Donabate beach earlier this week. Plus a gorgeous Common Carder Bee on a Spear Thistle, a late entry for #wildflowerhour !

Day 2 of our Botanical Skills bramble outings in Northern Ireland, this time in Peatlands Park in Armagh. In true botanical form, it took well over an hour to get out of the carpark...

#rubus @bsbibotany.bsky.social

A fun first day of late season bramble hunting in County Tyrone today with @bsbiireland.bsky.social @bsbibotany.bsky.social

Congrats, James, it looks great. I'm looking forward to picking up a copy!

Bertha's Dandelion

How can nature conservation in Britain lose sight of the species unique to our shores? In some cases, it’s a skills-gap. There are simply not many experts with the knowledge and experience to identify species in critical groups like hawkweeds and dandelions.

📷: Bertha's Dandelion

Endemic is out now

It’s the big day! After four years of research, writing and editing (and procrastination, terror and imposter syndrome), Endemic has now been released to the world.

Favourite plants for the Butterflies this week are Common Ragwort, Verbena bonariensis, Hemp Agrimony & Bramble #WildWebsWednesday