VP Cook

There were many wild highlights to my 2024, but sharing the aurora with a nightingale on 10th May was probably the greatest.

Good health, wellbeing and wildness to you all in 2025 x

WILEY AT WILDSIDE Risk-taking in Landscape

'Wiley at Wildside' is the most amazing garden my husband and I have ever visited. It's nowhere near as well known as it should be, but if you are anywhere near South Devon in 2025, I can't recommend it highly enough 🌿

#gardening #wildlifegardening #plants

wileyatwildside.com

The 2025 #NewYearPlantHunt is now officially underway!
All the resources needed to take part are here: bsbi.org/new-year-pla...
Hoping the weather is kind to 1000s of intrepid botanists heading out over the next 4 days to record wild & naturalised plants blooming in midwinter.
Good luck everyone!

Defra scraps England deadline to register thousands of miles of rights of way Campaigners jubilant after government heeded warning 2031 cutoff would mean loss of precious footpaths

On this (Boxing) day of walks, some good walking/access news:
c. 40,000 miles of historic rights-of-way in England & Wales have been reprieved from deletion from the “definitive map” of such paths.
Great work @ramblers.org.uk & other campaigners on this.
www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Desert hyacinth (Cistanche phelypaea)

I know I've spammed everyone with the desert hyacinths found yesterday, but look at THIS one! 😍

Desert hyacinth (Cistanche phelypaea), a leafless plant that parasitises the roots of shrubs, and after winter rain, sends into the world its assertive spikes of blossom.

I had the BEST day surveying populations of desert hyacinth (Cistanche phelypaea). This leafless plant parasitises the roots of shrubs, and after winter rain, sends into the world its assertive spikes of blossom. Wow!

1

2

Nepeta glomerulosa
Lamiaceae
Yasuj, Iran, June 2022
Altitude: 2760m

I can't quite believe it! I've been talking about finding a Penduline Tit for weeks, and then today I actually did!!! 😮🥳🤩 Lifer!! At RSPB Ouse Fen, a team effort with Hannah Bernie. Video by Stuart Short @cambsbirdclub.bsky.social #ukbirding

Wonderful to see this #RarePlantRegister for Surrey published, huge congratulations to @pennymarshwort.bsky.social & all the Surrey botanists who contributed!

1

Cistanche tubulosa
A desert plant
Host plant: Calligonum tetrapterum
Yazd, Iran
Elevation 1500m

Plant of the Week – December 9th 2024 – Scarlet Pimpernel (Lysimachia arvensis) A serious weed in other parts of the world, a harmless and pretty native plant here.

botsocscot.wordpress.com/2024/12/08/p...

BTO Youth Rep Raman alongside the wording: BTO Youth. Raman, Youth Rep for Reading and Birmingham.

🎉Huge congratulations to our incredible Youth Representative, Raman, for winning the Countryfile Young Countryside Champion award!🌿🐦 #UKBirding #Ornithology

Camberwell Beauty (Nymphalis antiopa) © Clive Burrows

Lesser Purple Emperor (Apatura ilia) © Clive Burrows

Good morning, and welcome to a new week! Our featured tour is Summer Butterflies of the Spanish Pyrenees - a colourful smorgasbord of some fabulous butterflies found in a wide range of habitats in a compact, particularly beautiful area of Spain. (1/3)

www.mariposanature.com/tours/butter...

A jade vine in its native Philippine rainforest.

Foresters showed me how when you place two jade vine flowers side by side, a butterfly appears 🦋

Day two on the platform. As I find my way about, let me fill your feed with beautiful wild plants. Here is a jade vine in its native Philippine rainforest. Have a good day everyone 🩵

Day five of my #tree #adventcalendar & here's the Bowl Oak, one of my besties as my daughter would say. It holds onto its leaves late. I call it the Bowl Oak coz it has a bowl in its bole where you can sit & watch the water meadow from a new angle.

I'd love to see your arboreal besties...

I've been to meet the truly remarkable botanist Dr Margaret Bradshaw.

The 98-year-old has been recording the flora in Teesdale for decades and we talked about plants, legacy, and how the area has adapted to a changing climate.

You can see the full report here:

www.itv.com/watch/news/a...

Tonight’s read #rewilding

Natures baubles on Cornus and Callicarpa at Harlow Carr #harrogate

Forever picking pine needles off the windscreen but love these beauties

After two years combing the streets, scaling walls, peering into gutters, scouring wasteground and lots of research and writing, my Urban Plants book is now with the designers! Very excited to also share the amazing cover by Carry Akroyd www.bloomsbury.com/uk/urban-pla...

first HC fungi list completed by new volunteer 👍 thankfully just before the snow

My first post on here and what better way to start with some fungi from RHS Harlow Carr, Harrogate last week; Striated Earthstar Geastrum striatum, Bird’s-nest Fungi Crucibulum laeve and Redlead Roundhead Leratiomyces ceres

The Blunt-fruited water-starwort Callitriche obtusangula.

It's an unobtrusive water plant, with pretty emergent rosettes.

Like a lot ot aquatic plants it has different shaped leaves

Completed for FSC

#waterstarwort #callitriche #waterplants ##aquaticplants #botanicalillustration #sciart 🐡

Hi Bluesky! Sharing my last event of the year on here: Join me at Chelsea Barracks for an event with Gaze Burvill, on 4 Dec. Tickets here: tickettailor.com/events/gazebur…

Sown wildflower meadows: Can they replace natural meadows in urban spaces for bees, butterflies and hoverflies? Areas with sown wildflower meadows, which are usually small areas, concentrate pollinating insects and have a similar value for pollinators as larger areas of natural meadows The abundance and diver...

Interesting new research quantifying the value of sowing small meadow areas in cities:
resjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1...

👏👏

Here's the @theguardian.com country diary feed, for anyone who enjoys a brief foray into the natural world at the start of each day. There are now 10 of us of @bsky.app & hopefully more on their way. Please share with other interested folk. Thank you 🙏

Cold night @RHS Harlow Carr so could be the final week of autumn colour #Liquidamber #Harrogate #Yorkshire