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Rebecca Wheeler

@botanybeck.bsky.social
3.7K followers 1.1K following 1.1K posts

Obsessed with the natural world, especially #fungi, #wildflowers and #orchids. 🍄 Wildlife gardener and Forest School Practitioner. Leads @wildflowerhour.bsky.social Love needle-felting and always trying to recreate my nature finds in wool felt #SciArt

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Rebecca Wheeler @botanybeck.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
I was so happy #fungifriends to spot some glorious Dotted Stem Boletes for #mushroommonday. Aren’t they stunning! The colour change upon bruising was so rapid and check out that finely punctate stipe! #fungi #fungifriday 🍄 📸
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Rebecca Wheeler @botanybeck.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Here’s a rare beauty for #mushroommonday, the stunning Crimson Bolete, Chalciporus rubinus. It has gorgeous carmine red, decurrent pores & red upper stem which gives it a very striking appearance. Very rare & classed as vulnerable on the ICUN red list, I left it undisturbed ❤️ #FungiFriends 🍄 📸
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Rebecca Wheeler @botanybeck.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
Flowers, fruit & fungi for #wildflowerhour from a lovely weekend of wandering around old graveyards!😀🔁 from top left, Smoky Spindles, Golden Waxcap, White Spindles, Shaggy Soldier, Black Bryony, Blackening Waxcap, Meadow Waxcap, Red Campion & Persistent Waxcap.
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Rebecca Wheeler @botanybeck.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
So happy to see these little guys up for #fungifriday! I just love them! Persistent Waxcaps, Hygrocybe acutoconica and my first waxcaps of the season! 💛 #fungifriends 🍄 📸
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Rebecca Wheeler @botanybeck.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Found another #FungiFriends! Special thanks to @lukaslarge.bsky.social for his identification yesterday that the ‘frill’ is another fungi, Syzygites megalocarpus, a mould with an impressive mycelium which delights in the common name of Troll-doll Fungus! How cool is that! Zoom in to see the flies!
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Rebecca Wheeler @botanybeck.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
#FungiFriends I found something a bit strange today - a frilly Blusher that looks like it’s wearing a tutu!!!😀 Late for #mushroommonday early for #fungifriday 🍄 📸
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Rebecca Wheeler @botanybeck.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
This is very kind, thank you! I couldn’t do it without the support of the lovely @naturelark.bsky.social of course and an enormous thank you to the wonderful #wildflowerhour community, who go out each week looking for flowers - there would be no #wildflowerhour without your amazing efforts! 🤗🥰
lovelynaturelark.bsky.social
Bluesky
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Rebecca Wheeler @botanybeck.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
This is very kind, thank you! I couldn’t do it without the support of the lovely @naturelark.bsky.social of course and an enormous thank you to the wonderful #wildflowerhour community, who go out each week looking for flowers - there would be no #wildflowerhour without your amazing efforts! 🤗🥰
lovelynaturelark.bsky.social
Bluesky
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Rebecca Wheeler @botanybeck.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
Cute as a button, for #mushroommonday, a Cortinarius species perfectly demonstrating why this group are known as the Webcaps! Look at that cobweb-like veil or cortina! 🕸️ #fungi #fungifriday #FungiFriends 🍄 📸
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Roger Harding @rogercharding.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
Ok So, #FavouritePlant #WildflowerHour Is over so I can post my REAL favourite flower of the year, because it was not (sadly!) In UK. How about THiS. Courtesy of @thenewgalaxy.bsky.social @dunnjons.bsky.social And @mariposanature.bsky.social Can"t be bettered.
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Roger Harding @rogercharding.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
#FavouritePlant #WildflowerHour @botanybeck.bsky.social @bsbibotany.bsky.social These two. Last and first orchids of the year.
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Dr Richard Bate @thenewgalaxy.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
For the #wildflowerhour #favouriteplant challenge 2026, I'm probably going to choose this lovely patch of Coralroot #Orchids (Corallorhiza trifida) from the dunes of South Cumbria. They were absolutely magnificent 🥰
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Rebecca Wheeler @botanybeck.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
My #FavouritePlant of 2026 for #wildflowerhour has to be this one. It’s been on my wish list for such a long time, the stunning hybrid between the Bee and Fly Orchid! Such enchanting, fascinating flowers! 🪰🐝 🥰
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Rebecca Wheeler @botanybeck.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
Amanitas on the move for #mushroommonday! It was so lovely to see lots of Blushers, Amanita rubescens, emerging in the woods at work today, they were everywhere #fungifriends! 🥰 🍄 📸
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Rebecca Wheeler @botanybeck.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
We’ve had a lot of rain & I’ve spotted lots of blooms as well as #fruits for #wildflowerhour this week. Clockwise from top left, Carline Thistle, Common Knapweed, Common Toadflax, Hawthorn, Red Valerian, Rosehips, Yarrow, Ox-eye Daisy, Annual Cornflower & centre, Foxglove.
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Rebecca Wheeler @botanybeck.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
A little early for #wildflowerhour, had such a lovely day yesterday visiting these little beauties! It was wonderful to see that the Autumn Lady’s Tresses had finally emerged after all the rain, always a bittersweet moment, the last orchid of the year to flower 🥰
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wildflowerhour @wildflowerhour.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
We are very sad to hear this news, such a wonderful man and botanist. He will be greatly missed!
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Donna Rainey @donnarainey4.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
A lovely selection of Boletus erythropus, Red foot bolete, in local woodland.
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wildflowerhour @wildflowerhour.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
Hips, haws, nuts and berries! It’s starting to look a bit autumnal out there! So this week’s challenge is #fruits! Share your finds of wild & naturalised fruits for #wildflowerhour this Sunday 8-9pm. Happy fruit hunting! ☺️🍒
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Rebecca Wheeler @botanybeck.bsky.social · 30/08/2026
I’ve seen this many times before on #wildflowerhour but not encountered it myself out ‘in the wild’. The toxic Thorn-apple, Datura stramonium has an interesting fruit, which is more of a seed capsule than a seed head and it looks like a weird spiky Sputnik!!! #SeedHeads
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wildflowerhour @wildflowerhour.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
Some wildflowers have seed heads that are truly spectacular! The challenge this week is to find some and then share your lovely pics for #WildflowerHour this Sunday 8-9pm using the hashtag #SeedHeads! Any wild or naturalised blooms you find too are of course always welcome!
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Sarah @sarahfaulkner.bsky.social · 23/08/2026
Slightly obsessed with Marsh Gentian at the moment, and (in the words of Depeche Mode) I just can't get enough! So took the opportunity to indulge in a visit to another local heathland this weekend - just glorious. 💙 #wildflowerhour
Marsh Gentian, on Dorset Heathland.
Colour of flowers was blue, but the evening light and my phone camera showing them more purple.
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Rebecca Wheeler @botanybeck.bsky.social · 23/08/2026
A lovely walk today along the Leeds-Liverpool canal whilst visiting my daughter & it made me very happy to see so much Arrowhead, Sagittaria sagittifolia in flower! Such a striking & beautiful plant #Wildflowerhour 🥰
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Rebecca Wheeler @botanybeck.bsky.social · 23/08/2026
The most Flowering Rush, Butomus umbellatus, I have ever seen! A huge swathe, looking breathtakingly beautiful besides the River Blackwater, Kells for #Wildflowerhour
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Rebecca Wheeler @botanybeck.bsky.social · 23/08/2026
More #WallPlants for #Wildflowerhour, an opportunistic Snapdragon providing a bright splash of colour & what I think might be Broad-leaved Willowherb emerging from the walls of Old Mellifont Abbey, Slane.
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Rebecca Wheeler @botanybeck.bsky.social · 23/08/2026
I was happy to spot a #WallPlant for #Wildflowerhour when I was visiting the incredible New Grange this week! Rosebay Willowherb & what an amazing wall it was sprouting from, those kerb stones have lain there for 5,000 years!!!
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wildflowerhour @wildflowerhour.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
Walls may not seem the most hospitable of environments but the plants that can survive there can be surprising! See if you can find any flowering #WallPlants for this week’s challenge & share your pics for #wildflowerhour this Sunday 8-9pm!
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Sarah @sarahfaulkner.bsky.social · 16/08/2026
I love Sundews, they are such extraordinary plants. As #CommonNames go, this one is perfect - in the sun those sticky, deadly beads glimmer like dew, luring unwary insects to an untimely death. This Sundew was one of many I enjoyed seeing on the Purbeck Heaths. So beautiful. 💚 #Wildflowerhour
Sundew on the Purbeck Heaths, Dorset.
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Rebecca Wheeler @botanybeck.bsky.social · 17/08/2026
I’ve always wanted to see the Giant’s Causeway. I didn’t expect to see nestled amidst the splendour of the basalt columns, a lovely little Roseroot, Rhodiola rosea! Suffice to say I was the only person photographing it 😀#wildflowerhour
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Rebecca Wheeler @botanybeck.bsky.social · 16/08/2026
I’m in a pub in Derry🤪so here’s my gorgeous Bog Star for #Wildflowerhour Parnassia palustris, Grass of Parnassus, named after Greek cattle of Parnassus developed a taste for the plant! I like the Swedish Slåtterblomma which means hay-making flower, it’s a signal to bring in the harvest! #CommonNames
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Rebecca Wheeler @botanybeck.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
Just about to leave for last minute trip to Ireland. Is there any chance at all of seeing Irish Lady’s Tresses? Arriving first in Larne, along Antrim Coast to Derry, then Wild Atlantic Way to Donegal, bit of Connemara National Park, New Grange before heading home from Dublin. #wildflowerhour
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Rebecca Wheeler @botanybeck.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
A new challenge this week for #WildflowerHour, hope you enjoy it! Any wild or naturalised bloom that you find, squirrel out those evocative common names, the quirkier the better!
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Jon Dunn @dunnjons.bsky.social · 03/08/2026
Today was Blue Monday, in the very best of ways, with seven species of gentian seen in flower here in the French Alps with the @mariposanature.bsky.social tour I'm co-leading with @thenewgalaxy.bsky.social.
Snow Gentian (Gentiana nivalis) © Jon Dunn
Willow Gentian (Gentiana asclepiadea) © Jon Dunn
Fringed Gentian (Gentianopsis ciliata) © Jon Dunn
Small-leaved Gentian (Gentiana brachyphylla) © Jon Dunn
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Dr Richard Bate @thenewgalaxy.bsky.social · 06/08/2026
Ghost #Orchids (Epipogium aphyllum) galore from several sites across #France including a trio that featured as part of the tour I led for @mariposanature.bsky.social with @dunnjons.bsky.social They have struggled due to drought and heat, especially in the Alps with many no shows at reliable sites
Ghost Orchids (Epipogium aphyllum) in the PyreneesGhost Orchids (Epipogium aphyllum) in SavoieGhost Orchids (Epipogium aphyllum) in the VercorsGhost Orchids (Epipogium aphyllum) in Sauvain
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Jane E. Hall @clothofnature.bsky.social · 09/08/2026
Meet our extended family… the Daisy family. A wildflower array of the Asteraceae still blooming here at Madrigal despite drought and relentless heat — yellow, white, purple, prickly, feathery and thistle-down soft. Different weather. The same wonderfully sprawling family #WildflowerHour #DaisyFamily
Botanical-style wildflower array arranged on handmade white paper and titled ‘The Daisy Family ~ Madrigal August 2026’. Individual stems gathered from the meadow are laid out and handwritten labels identify Bristly Oxtongue, Nipplewort, Fleabane, Daisy, Hawkbit, Ragwort, Noble Yarrow, Sneezewort, Field Thistle, Oxeye Daisy, Knapweed and Chicory. Yellow, white, purple and blue flowers mingle with seed heads, feathers, butterfly cocoons, a bumblebee, peacock butterfly wing and colourful snail shells — small treasures gathered among the flowers.
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Rebecca Wheeler @botanybeck.bsky.social · 09/08/2026
They might be common but these members of the #DaisyFamily brightened my walks this week! From top left, Common Fleabane, garden escaped Michaelmas Daisies, Creeping Thistle, Ox-eye Daisy, Sneezewort and Common Yarrow, all looking pretty for #wildflowerhour.
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Rebecca Wheeler @botanybeck.bsky.social · 09/08/2026
I’ve been lucky to spot a few Elephant Hawk Moth caterpillars in the garden this year. Currently they are chomping away on the Bogbean 😀🐛 #TeamMoth
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wildflowerhour @wildflowerhour.bsky.social · 06/08/2026
Despite the recent drought many members of the Asteraceae or daisy family are looking just splendid. Perfect for this week’s #WildflowerHour! See if you can find one & share your pics this Sunday evening 8-9pm using the hashtag #DaisyFamily. Happy Asteraceae hunting!
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Rebecca Wheeler @botanybeck.bsky.social · 02/08/2026
A few blooms spotted for #wildflowerhour this week on a lovely family holiday in beautiful Northumberland! #ByTheSea
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wildflowerhour @wildflowerhour.bsky.social · 29/07/2026
What can you find blooming along the coast? That’s the challenge this week for #WildflowerHour! Share your pics this Sunday 8-9pm using the hashtag #ByTheSea! Happy flower hunting! 🌿🌸🌊
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wildflowerhour @wildflowerhour.bsky.social · 22/07/2026
The theme for this week’s #wildflowerhour challenge is wetland plants. So have a mosey in your local marsh, mire, bog, fen and see what you can find! Share your pics this Sunday 8-9pm using #wetlandplants #InternationalBogDay2026
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Rebecca Wheeler @botanybeck.bsky.social · 19/07/2026
Also #StillFlowering an enormous swathe of Common Fleabane in my local park. Such a cheery plant, its bright sun-shaped flowers are an absolute magnet for invertebrates! #Wildflowerhour 🌞
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Rebecca Wheeler @botanybeck.bsky.social · 19/07/2026
Despite the recent hot weather & drought conditions the Broad-leaved Helleborines in the woods at work have been looking spectacular! I’ve been in orchid heaven admiring them all! #Wildflowerhour #StillFlowering
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wildflowerhour @wildflowerhour.bsky.social · 08/07/2026
With warmer temperatures forecast for the end of the week hopefully you’ll appreciate a watery theme for this week’s challenge! Find wild or naturalised aquatic plants in bloom and share for #wildflowerhour this Sunday 8-9pm using the hashtag #AquaticPlants 💦🌱
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Rebecca Wheeler @botanybeck.bsky.social · 05/07/2026
It’s been a bit of a week with my son back in hospital so sadly not had much time for botanising but I did see these lovely #ClimbingPlants whilst walking my little hairy pal 🐾 Left, White Bryony, Bryonia dioica & right, Honeysuckle, Lonicera periclymenum for #WildflowerHour
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Rebecca Wheeler @botanybeck.bsky.social · 02/07/2026
It was nice to see the Broad-leaved Helleborines beginning to open in the woods at work today. Always love showing these lovely flowers to the children & explaining how they are pollinated, they were fascinated with them! 🥰 #wildflowerhour
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wildflowerhour @wildflowerhour.bsky.social · 01/07/2026
Can you find a flowering wild or naturalised plant that has a climbing habit?! 🧗That’s the challenge this week for #wildflowerhour! Share your finds this Sunday 8-9pm!
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Rebecca Wheeler @botanybeck.bsky.social · 28/06/2026
After missing out last weekend, some orchid therapy was required. It was such a tonic to see lots of beautiful Marsh Helleborine & Marsh Fragrant Orchids emerging through a carpet of Seaside Centaury & Yellow-wort at this interesting ex-industrial site in Cheshire #wildflowerhour
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Rebecca Wheeler @botanybeck.bsky.social · 21/06/2026
At the start of the week my Forest School group spotted lots of Speckled Wood enjoying the Meadow Buttercups. It’s a good job I took a few photos because later in the week I came down with a horrible bug & spent all of this gorgeous weekend in bed! #Wildflowerhour #PollinatorPals
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wildflowerhour @wildflowerhour.bsky.social · 17/06/2026
This week’s challenge is #PollinatorPals! Find a flowering wild or naturalised plant with a pollinating visitor & snap away. Of course it’s not just about bees! Butterflies, moths, wasps, flies & beetles can be #pollinators too! Share your pics for #Wildflowerhour Sunday 8-9pm 🪲🦋🪰🐝
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