BSBI Botany

Brits talk about 'pushing up the daisies' when we end our days.
In Polish, it's 'smelling the flowers from underneath' & in Spanish, it's 'raising mallows'!
This #FreeWillsMonth, we encourage you to consider what you can leave to loved ones, including a future for our wildflowers in the years ahead.

Urban botany at its sweetest!

Sweetly fluffy flowers of Great Woodrush (Luzula sylvatica) just starting to emerge after a few mild days at #Hazelwood, #Sligo @bsbibotany.bsky.social @wildflowerhour.bsky.social #wildflowerhour #WBYeats @irishwoodlandtrust.bsky.social @irishwildlifetrust.bsky.social #wildatlanticway

3 days until publication of 'Wild Pavements - Exploring Britain's Cities with an Urban Naturalist' on 5 March. I've kept a record of each step as a #1stBookDiary in 7 chapters, and I'm planning to share one each day before 'P-day'. #writing #creativewriting #naturewriting #urbannature #nonfiction

Rustyback Fern Asplenium ceterach on a 19th century brick wall. It has pinnately-divided, tongue-shaped leaves growing as a tuft.

Rustyback Fern growing next to Wall-rue Fern on a brick wall.

Out recording Spring flower activity today at Bungay (Suffolk) @wildflowersociety.bsky.social. Agreeable company with impressive skill-set. My top find was Rustyback Fern (Asplenium ceterach) - not much of a flower but a first for me.

Cherry plum (Prunus cerasifera) in full white bloom at Little Paxton today. Noticed marked variation, this specimen had flowers with very short anthers, and petals distinctly more pointed than others. Given how widely the species is planted, perhaps there’s been some crossing with cultivated forms.

This plant used to be used to flavour beer! Not sure I'd fancy drinking that, though ;-)

Great to see so many much-loved wildflowers coming into bloom again, now Spring is here. At last!
Huge thanks to everyone who shared pix for #WildFlowerHour tonight.
Remember to keep an eye on @wildflowerhour.bsky.social to see what the 1st challenge of 2026, set by @botanybeck.bsky.social, will be!

Primroses, hedge bedstraw, ivy, grass, leaf litter - in the bank of a hedgerow, Dartmoor, Devon

Primroses, hedge bedstraw, ivy - bank of a hedge #Dartmoor #Devon #WildflowerHour

Collage of three flower photos. Clockwise from left: Cherry Plum, Willow flower, small Danish Scurvy Grass plant with flower

Definite signs of Spring for #wildflowerhour today 🙌 😍 Cherry Plum blossom, Willow flower and Danish Scurvy Grass.

@bsbibotany.bsky.social Foind a plant today thst was new to me Alexander I think

Greek Squill naturalised for many years on Tunbridge Wells Common #wildflowerhour

With the mild weather, more and more flowers are popping up — like my first lesser celandine, dandelion, Primrose, Cornelian cherry, Fingered speedwell, and Wall speedwell.

Thanks to #WildflowerHour for this fab #TheWinter10 — I really enjoyed it! 😄

Gorse in flower by a roadside

Daisies in flower

A dandelion

Celandine

Lots of daffodils and trees in flower in streets and gardens here in #Harrow but candidates for #wildflowerhour not so much. Still managed to find some, yellow definitely colour of the week.

Three cornered leek, danish Scurvygrass, Blackthorn, daisy, cow parsley, common chickweed and shepherds purse

I also found 7 species of white flowering plants (out of my 25 for #thewinter10).

Loving the Blackthorn blossom particularly. And two clumps of Danish Scurvygrass - a healthy patch (top middle) looking lush, and a purple coloured plant growing on a wall (presumably under stress).

#wildflowerhour

Common Storksbill starting to flower on Tunbridge Wells Common #wildflowerhour

Hairy Bittercress, Cardamine hirsuta, with the flowers thankfully open in the sunshine, which makes it so much easier to count the four stamens! This was in the Sainsbury's (other supermarkets are available) car park. #WildflowerHour

Lesser Celandine putting in an appearance today in Melksham, Wiltshire. Not in abundance yet, but good to see it back with a promise of spring. #wildflowerhour

The misnamed Summer Snowflake in its regular spot on Tunbridge Wells Common #wildflowerhour

Bastard’s Ramping Fumitory, Fumaria bastardii

Red Deadnettle, Lamium putpureum

Skeletonised fruit capsule of White Henane, Hyoscyamus albus.

Spring emerges on my allotment, with a hint of last summer. #wildflowerhour

Dandelion, Common Ragwort, Spotted Meddick, Smooth Sow-thistle, Lesser Celandine, Gorse, Groundsel ,Annual Mercury, Petty Spurge, Alexanders, Annual Meadow Grass.

As it's the last #thewinter10 I set myself an extra challenge...how many flowers I could find on my local 10 minute loop.

Turned out there has been an explosion of flowering, so my 10 minute walk took 25 minutes - with 25 species found!

Here are 12 yellow and green flowers for #wildflowerhour.

Japanese (aka Giant) Butterbur, Petasites japonicus, naturalised on the bank of the Ravensbourne River in the vicinity of Ravensbourne Lodge. This is a remnant of exotic plantings by Joanna Bonham-Carter, who built the lodge in 1861 and created a large garden. #WildflowerHour

Yes! Did you bruise the leaves and sniff? They have quite a distinctive smell!

And some opposite-leaved golden-saxifrage!

First flowers of Cow Parsley, Anthriscus sylvestris, in Cherry Hinton Hall Park #Cambridge. Off to a good start as they must bloom and set seed before they are mown down before the Folk Festival 1/2 August. 😬
#WildflowerHour

I was rather surprised to find a Hairy Wood-rush in flower today in woodland in mid Cornwall, but very welcome nonetheless. #wildflowerhour They're very thin, so difficult to photograph in situ.

Luzula pilosa

Cherry Plum tree flowers, also in the rain

Thanks to everyone's help last week, I know that these are Cherry Plum flowers! #WildflowerHour

Three white violets

One white violet with bright green leaves

A yellow primrose in flower plus two buds.

A childhood favourite. White violets and primroses #Wildflowerhour.

Sweet Violet illuminated by winter sunlight against a backdrop of trees, shrubs and just visible below the tree lined horizon a lake.

A sunlit swathe of Sweet Violet making its way through urban Lincolnshire lakeside woodland. #WildflowerHour

The first decent looking Greater Stitchwort flower I've seen this year that has not been made scruffy by incessant rain. Mid Cornwall today (and yes, it was raining today on and off).
#wildflowerhour

Stellaria holostea