iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Jake Dalzell @bitheolaidhe.bsky.social · 5h

Doassansiopsis hydrophila on Potamogeton on Monday - this is one of a group of fungi infecting aquatic plants, with large spore balls (~0.2mm) which presumably float to their next host. #FungiFriends #WildPlantDisease

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Jake Dalzell @bitheolaidhe.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Spiranthes spiralis at Killard has ripe seeds and winter rosettes now. Field season officially over 🥲

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Jake Dalzell @bitheolaidhe.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Why is it that the media never consult an ecologist on articles like this? They conflate meadow with a sown pasture with a few herbaceous perennials. The Chicory in the picture isn't even native! Of course there are few claims beyond “he believes”. www.theguardian.com/environment/...

theguardian.com

‘You can taste the land’: the Somerset farmer bringing wildflowers back to cheddar

Tom Calver has sacrificed milk yields to give his cows a more varied diet of plants and believes the result is better cheese and richer farmland

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Jake Dalzell @bitheolaidhe.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

A lot of the Dactylis glomerata in our field is covered in this rust Puccinia striiformoides right now, which forms bright orange uredinia in narrow stripes. I also found a few plants with a coinfection of Puccinia graminis (I think), with larger warm brown uredinia. #FungiFriends #WildPlantDisease

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Jake Dalzell @bitheolaidhe.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Thrilled to find a Giant Puffball today! My first in over 10 years! #FungiFriends

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Jake Dalzell @bitheolaidhe.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

This is the first year our Passiflora caerulea has successfully produced ripe fruit (they are pretty tasteless). Not something I ever expected in our garden.

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Jake Dalzell @bitheolaidhe.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

Really interesting research on creating native prairies on urban soils in Colorado youtu.be/vq4WYYPEiJQ

youtu.be

The Native Seed Research Plot

YouTube video by Crime Pays But Botany Doesn't

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James Bullock @jmbecologist.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

“The super-rich have apocalypse fantasies of their own, built not on faith or ideology but on a calm and rational evaluation of how best to maintain their position; they would genuinely rather reign in hell than share in heaven” www.theguardian.com/books/2026/s...

theguardian.com

Naomi Klein: ‘Extreme wealth has a deranging effect. It turns you into a supremacist’

She’s tackled neoliberalism and the digital world, now the writer and activist is taking on tech billionaires. She explains how the super-rich are capitalising on climate and financial chaos in pursui...

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Dean Mac Cú Uladh @dmac00.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

Bidens tripartita and Persicaria hydropiper from Loughbrickland, Co. Down - both last recorded in 1989 Such lovely wetland species

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Martin @botanicalmartin.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

Lady's Bedstraw growing in the lawn at the community garden in Redcar. Makes a fantastic lawn plant as it doesn't mind being mown, will flower at a low level, and withstands drought well too. This its second flowering after the recent rains gave it a boost.

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Jake Dalzell @bitheolaidhe.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

Seemingly new to Ireland today - the powdery mildew Arthrocladiella mougeotii on Duke of Argyll's teaplant/Goji berry #FungiFriends #WildPlantDisease

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Botanical University Challenge @bucbotany.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

🌿🌾🌳🌍🍞🎼We are sad that Jonathan Mitchley ('DrM') passed away this week. BUC and especially the Student Botany Festival, would not exist without him. He made a big impact on the UK & Irish student botany community. Competition & festival will continue in 2027. www.reading.ac.uk/news/2026/Un...

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Donna Rainey @donnarainey4.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

Sericomyia superbiens, a stunning hoverfly, it is a bumblebee mimic, looking convincingly like the Common carder. These were in my garden today. #hoverflies

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Jake Dalzell @bitheolaidhe.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

A Green Tiger Beetle on Ilkley Moor (baht 'at)

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Jake Dalzell @bitheolaidhe.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

Doassansia sagittariae on Arrowhead in central Leeds. This aquatic fungus forms balls of spores with a central cavity which presumably float in the water to reach new hosts. #FungiFriends #WildPlantDisease

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Ash Whiffin @ashwhiffin.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

How do you digitise 325,000 insect specimens? Put them on conveyor belts! 🪰🐝🦋📸 Earlier this week, I went behind the scenes at the NMNH to see this mass digitization set-up in action! Thank you @tdikow.bsky.social & the Picturae team for hosting me! Find out more here: m.youtube.com/watch?v=-OSe...

Insect specimens with labels removed and placed on holders ready to be moved around on conveyers and taken for imaging. System designed and run by Picturae.

Digitiser working at one of the specimen stations to return specimens to their original location in the drawer and prepare and send out a new specimen.

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Dr Astrid Biddle @astridbiddle.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

Pleased to announce my new paper: Herbarium specimens spanning nearly two centuries revealed striking ecological & geographical differences between two ploidy-defined subspecies of Eleocharis palustris in Britain. Ploidy & genome size could help explain them. doi.org/10.33928/bib...

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Nigel Monaghan @nigelmonaghan-nh.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

National Museums Northern Ireland has two jobs for collections digitisation under the DiSSCo UK program, closing 9 September #museumjobs ce0568li.webitrent.com/ce0568li_web...

ce0568li.webitrent.com

Search results

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Jake Dalzell @bitheolaidhe.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

This looks like a really cool project!

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Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland (BSBI) @bsbibotany.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

Intrepid botanists headed up Slieve Muck on 18 August in the footsteps of Ireland's most famous naturalist, Robert Lloyd Praeger. They found Mountain Everlasting, a plant last recorded on the mountain by the great man himself in 1880! @bsbiireland.bsky.social Find out more: bsbi.org/about/news/p...

The distinctive leaves (green on top, white below) of the Mountain Everlasting plant, photographed on Slieve Muck, Co. Down, on 18 August.

A group of smiling, intrepid botanists point to one of the rare plants they found on the mountain.

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Dr Charlie Gardner @charliejgardner.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

At Natural Surroundings wildflower centre nr Holt, they have a 'Romanian sock meadow' After a visit to the meadows of Romania, they put soil in a barrel and planted all the seeds that had hitched a ride in their socks Voila, a sock meadow!

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Dean Mac Cú Uladh @dmac00.bsky.social · 22/08/2026

I visited a tiny slither of woodland on a crag near Binevenagh, Co. Derry recently and despite its size it packed a big punch of temperate rainforest diversity. Loads of Colura calyptrifolia and Lejeunea patens. I also found another popn of Endoantria benetecta which is the first for the county

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Jake Dalzell @bitheolaidhe.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

Lots of Marsh Fritillary (and not really a whole lot else!) at Murlough today

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Jake Dalzell @bitheolaidhe.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

An interesting leaf spot today: Jamesdicksonia dactylidis on Yorkshire Fog. It forms masses of dark brown spores in the mesophyll. This was apparently the first Irish record. #FungiFriends #WildPlantDisease

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Jake Dalzell @bitheolaidhe.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

The first Small Tortoiseshell I've seen this year, on Scorzoneroides autumnalis

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Dr David Cockburn @nature-in-charge.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

A surprise on examining this ~4mm #gall on Agrostis stolonifera at Broughton Sanctuary; Skipton. Expecting maybe fungal spores, I found it to be full of nematodes up to ~1mm: Subanguina graminophila. Not often recorded. @ynuorg.bsky.social

elongate purplish galls ~4mm long at base of leaf blade

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Donna Rainey @donnarainey4.bsky.social · 11/08/2026

Seeing Grayling with open wings for the first time! This pair were courting & mating.

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Jake Dalzell @bitheolaidhe.bsky.social · 09/08/2026

A raven and Salix herbacea on Sliabh Binneáin

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Jake Dalzell @bitheolaidhe.bsky.social · 07/08/2026

This wonderful ancient damp pasture managed by @donnarainey4.bsky.social had the highest plant diversity in a quadrat so far this field season (24 species)

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Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland (BSBI) @bsbibotany.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

We're hiring! We have a new Local Change project, building on previous BSBI monitoring projects, to provide crucial data on the state of our wild plants. Background to the project: bsbi.org/take-part/pr... We're now looking to recruit a Project Coordinator. Find out more: bsbi.org/about/people...

3 botanists by the sea photographing, identifying and recording the wildflowers they find

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Jake Dalzell @bitheolaidhe.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

This morning I saw this pretty micromoth Chrysoclista linneella, seemingly a recent colonist (I can't see any Irish records before 2022).

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Guy Shrubsole @guyshrubsole.bsky.social · 03/08/2026

Shooting interests & the rightwing press want to exploit the wildfires to reinstate moorland burning. But you don't fight fire with fire. You fight it with water. This wildfire in Wales' Elan Valley in May stopped abruptly when it reached re-wetted peat bogs: www.walesfarmer.co.uk/news/2614875...

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Richard K Broughton @richardkbroughton.bsky.social · 29/07/2026

Another installment of the 'native woodlands don't burn' debunking. Birch and oak are made of wood, and if they're dry enough (like in a drought) then they'll burn. And if they're on peat, they'll burn all the more. Just to reiterate, this is a fen. A famously wet habitat. On fire.

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Jake Dalzell @bitheolaidhe.bsky.social · 01/08/2026

Succisa pratensis is coming into flower so it's time to look for the grey conidiophores of Peronospora violacea on deformed flowerheads (enlarged corolla and shriveled anthers). They can be up to several times the size of uninfected ones! #FungiFriends #WildPlantDisease

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Jake Dalzell @bitheolaidhe.bsky.social · 29/07/2026

A gall midge, Kiefferia pericarpiicola, galling the ovaries of wild carrot today at Killard #cecidomyiidae

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Jake Dalzell @bitheolaidhe.bsky.social · 28/07/2026

A Torymid wasp that was investigating Centaurea nigra, presumably to lay into a fly or wasp larva in the flowerhead. I've seen torymids on Centaurea at 3 sites, so presumably they are all one common and widespread species. They are all this fab metallic green.

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Miguel Clavero @chikichanka.bsky.social · 24/07/2026

The log of the Dutch ship 'Gelderland' (1601-1603) had absolutely increadible sketches of the soon extinct bird fauna of Mauritius, included its flightless parrot, ibis and dodo Atributted to Joris Joostensz Laerle Check more drawings here commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Categor...

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Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland (BSBI) @bsbibotany.bsky.social · 27/07/2026

We're hiring! We have a new Local Change project, building on previous monitoring projects, to provide crucial data on the state of our wild plants. Here's the background: bsbi.org/take-part/pr... We're now looking to recruit a Project Coordinator: could that be you? bsbi.org/about/news/l...

bsbi.org

Local Change: Project Coordinator vacancy

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Jake Dalzell @bitheolaidhe.bsky.social · 26/07/2026

I just saw a Speckled Wood lay this egg on a Poa in a crack in our garden pavement. A poor choice! It is one of the only butterflies that happily completes its entire lifecycle here in small gardens like ours and is very successful doing so.

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Saoirse McHugh @saoirsemc.bsky.social · 25/07/2026

This summer has made it abundantly clear that we need rewetting across all landscapes, varied habitats, firebreaks and a recalibration of what we use water for, and in ireland, a massive growth and restoration of our degraded ecosystems like bog and wet woodlands that are naturally fire resistant

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Jake Dalzell @bitheolaidhe.bsky.social · 25/07/2026

Phacellium alborosellum, a commonish leaf spot on Cerastium. The large bundles of conidiophores are easily visible under the hand lens. #FungiFriends #WildPlantDisease

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Jake Dalzell @bitheolaidhe.bsky.social · 24/07/2026

I've been enjoying testing out the new, greatly simplified Euphrasia key this year. I'm yet to find anything other than E. nemorosa though. Today's version of that species had especially large flowers.

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Donna Rainey @donnarainey4.bsky.social · 19/07/2026

Stunning carpets of wildflowers at St John's point, Donegal. #wildflowerhour

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