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Eirian @miltonei.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

#wildflowerhour A few of the lovely plants still flowering up on the Chilterns this week near Aston Rowant: Burnet saxifrage (possibly) Harebell Hoary ragwort Wild basil Pale toadflax

Five photos of different flowering plants in a grid. Top left: white florets of a wild carrot - burnet saxifrage possibly. Top right: two blue pixie hats nodding in the breeze - a pair of harebells. Below that, the bright yellow petals of hoary ragwort. Two pink flowers of wild basil are bottom right. And bottom left are three flowers on a stem looking similar to snapdrgons - pale toadflax - with darker purple stripes on a pale background, and a central yellow patch.

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Eirian @miltonei.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

#wildflowerhour Postcard from Brittany … Devil’s bit scabious, Vervain, Apple mint, and old man’s beard.

A grid of four pictures. Top left a purple pincushion of a devil’s bit scabious flower. Top right Vervain with tiny pale purple flowers on long stems, bottom left seedheads of wild clematis with striking red central seed clusters, bottom right apple mint with soft leaves and pink flowers. It smelt nice too.

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Eirian @miltonei.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

#wildflowerhour #favouriteplant So many to choose from, but remembering seeing these field roses - one with a visitor - made me smile. (Black and yellow longhorn beetle)

Two cream roses, with bright yellow centres. One of the roses has a yellow and black beetle, with long antennae, nestling in the corner of a petal.

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Eirian @miltonei.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

#wildflowerhour #fruits Rowan, rosehip, honeysuckle, spindleberry, sloe, yew “berry”, elderberry, hawthorn, blackberry, all in Oxfordshire this week.

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Eirian @miltonei.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

#wildflowerhour #seedheads Poppies, teasel, quaking grass, wild carrot

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Eirian @miltonei.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

#wildflowerhour #seedheads Harebell, with fairy flax and other seedheads, wild carrot, carline thistle

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Eirian @miltonei.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

Posting early for #wildflowerhour #wallplants Found on old cotswold stone walls this week: common ivy (alongside some lovely yellow lichen), ivy-leaved toadflax, wall lettuce with some shrivelled yellow flowers just visible, and hart’s tongue fern.

A grid showing four plants surviving on Cotswold stone walls despite the hot summer.

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Eirian @miltonei.bsky.social · 16/08/2026

#wildflowerhour #plantnames This plant is new to me this week. I read about it on @brigitstrawbridge.bsky.social and suddenly realised I had taken a photo of one last weekend while at BBOWT Warburg. Orpine has many weird alt names: frog’s stomach; midsummer men; livelong; witch’s moneybags

A dark pink/purple flower head with multiple five petalled florets. The leaves are waxy. It is a member of the sedum family.

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Eirian @miltonei.bsky.social · 09/08/2026

#wildflowerhour #daisyfamily Fleabane, and scented mayweed today, both quite small flowers, when seen alongside two fields of huge sunflowers which have been set aside for wildlife. A bonanza for the bees.

A grid of four pictures. Top left are 3 small yellow flowers - fleabane - which look a bit like mini sunflowers. Below is a photo of a field full of yellow sunflowers, many as large as dinner plates, all with their heads turned to face the sun. Many of the flowers were being visited by winged pollinators - including bumblebees. Also saw some white daisy-like chamomile flowers which are sometimes called scented mayweed, or pineapple weed because of their smell.

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Eirian @miltonei.bsky.social · 02/08/2026

I am nowhere near the sea this week, so here is one from the archive. Ards Forest park in Donegal, June 2025. Thrift on the rocks. #wildflowerhour #seaplants

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Eirian @miltonei.bsky.social · 26/07/2026

#wildflowerhour Wild radish after a welcome drop of rain, the first for weeks. No wetlands here, sadly.

A pale pink flower with four petals. One petal has a water droplet on it after a shower of rain. The first rain we have had in weeks.

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Eirian @miltonei.bsky.social · 19/07/2026

Seeing double this week! Flax, bindweed, stemless thistle, oxeye daisy, and wild carrot. All in pairs. #wildflowerhour #stillflowering

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Eirian @miltonei.bsky.social · 12/07/2026

#wildflowerhour #aquaticplants Does greater spearwort count as an aquatic plant? In a small Oxfordshire pond, which has almost dried up.

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Eirian @miltonei.bsky.social · 12/07/2026

#wildflowerhour Happy to see harebells bobbing in the breeze up on the Chiltern escarpment today. An early morning walk before it got too hot.

A group of pale blue, bell-shaped flowers on thin stems - harebells. Some of the flowers are open while others are in bud, and a few flowers have already wilted and are shrivelling up. One stem can have several flowers at different stages.

Another group of harebells, showing open flowers, new buds, and older, shrivelled flowers. A bit chaotic to photograph, especially as it was windy.

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Eirian @miltonei.bsky.social · 05/07/2026

#wildflowerhour #climbingplants A pretty jumble of pink and white candystripe trumpets - field bindweed clambering all over the neighbouring vegetation in this farm pasture.

A local field is full of this bindweed which twists around grass and other plants for support. The flowers are pink and white striped trumpets.

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Eirian @miltonei.bsky.social · 05/07/2026

#wildflowerhour #climbingplants Large bindweed was competing with honeysuckle to completely cover the bramble beneath. Other non-climbing finds: pink common centaury, devil’s bit scabious, and some sneezewort (high pollen count today!).

A set of four flower photos. Top left - a cluster of small pink 5- petalled flowers - common centaury. Top right - devil’s bit scabious. A blue/pink flower head looking like a pincushion.
Bottom left - 5 creamy white flowers of sneezewort, each with a pale yellow centre. Bottom right - a white bindweed flower competing with white and yellow honeysuckle to cover the bramble beneath, which is supporting them.

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Eirian @miltonei.bsky.social · 28/06/2026

#wildflowerhour My first encounter with a Lizard orchid on Minchinhampton common. Very strange structure.

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Eirian @miltonei.bsky.social · 28/06/2026

#wildflowerhour Black knapweed,and rosebay willowherb

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Eirian @miltonei.bsky.social · 21/06/2026

A rose between two … horns? A black and yellow longhorn beetle (rutpela maculata) on field rose. #wildflowerhour #pollinatorpals Oedemera beetle (?) on scabious, bee on viper’s bugloss, marmalade hoverflies on rose, marbled white butterfly on welted thistle - not the usual knapweed.

Five images, each with a plant and a visiting pollinator.

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Eirian @miltonei.bsky.social · 14/06/2026

Some more flowers from this week. Poppies and vipers bugloss brightening up the field margins near us. A pale common spotted orchid, some zigzag clover, and a patch of pyramidal orchids in the shade under a tree. #wildflowerhour

Four pictures Top left: a general view of fields with red poppies and blue spikes of vipers bugloss. Top right: a tall white spike of a common spotted orchid, much paler, almost white, compared with its neighbours.
Lower left: three or four pyramidal orchids amongst the grass in the shade of a tree.
Lower right: pink clover flowers with pointed rather than rounded leaves. A zigzag clover.

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Eirian @miltonei.bsky.social · 14/06/2026

#wildflowerhour #churchyardflowers “I shall be one with nature, herb, and stone,” Shelley would tell me… Pushing up daisies… [from A Terre, by Wilfred Owen] A profusion of oxeye daisies at Stanton St John yesterday.

A picture of a churchyard - blue sky behind the building, and several lichen-covered gravestones in front. They are leaning with age, and the inscriptions not easily legible. They are almost submerged in a sea of white oxeye daisies which have been left to grow wild in places, while elsewhere paths have been mown in the grass.

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Eirian @miltonei.bsky.social · 07/06/2026

#wildflowerhour #lawnflowers A miniature tapestry, in a square foot of my back lawn. These plants may be tiny but their names are quite long: Thyme-leaved speedwell; common mouse ear chickweed; small flowered cranesbill; lesser hop trefoil; and some square gooseneck moss. Hard to focus at this scale

I crawled on my hands and knees to find this small section of my lawn, with yellow, white, pink, and pale blue flowers - lesser hop trefoil, mouse ear chickweed, small flowered cranesbill, and thyme-leaved speedwell. A few blades of grass but a lot of moss - square gooseneck moss.

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Eirian @miltonei.bsky.social · 02/06/2026

Late for #orchidchallenge #wildflowerhour but had to share these lovely bee orchids found today on Minchinhampton common. One of a group of about 9 in a small area.

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Eirian @miltonei.bsky.social · 31/05/2026

#wildflowerhour #orchidchallenge Common spotted, fragrant, and pyramidal orchids in South Oxfordshire this week.

Three different wild orchids with varying shapes and shades of pink.

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Eirian @miltonei.bsky.social · 24/05/2026

#wildflowerhour It was the bright pink of this Grass Vetchling - Lathyrus nissolia - which helped me to spot it, yesterday, tucked away at the edge of Bernwood Meadows. An exciting new find for my list.

A single bright pink flower, a bit like a tiny sweet pea, dangling on a long slender stem and with grasslike leaves.

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Eirian @miltonei.bsky.social · 17/05/2026

#wildflowerhour #tinyplants On our walk today we spotted this brown argus butterfly feeding on a tiny forget-me-not flower (a wood forget-me-not, possibly). It somehow knows that the yellow-centred flower is the one to go for. Photo courtesy of Chris White.

A small brown argus butterfly, its wings edged with a bright orange pattern, is feeding on a wild forget-me-not flower. (Five blue petals.) One blue flower has yellow around the centre, which indicates to the butterfly that there is nectar available. The other flower lacks the yellow ring, as it has already been emptied.

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Eirian @miltonei.bsky.social · 17/05/2026

#tinyplants #wildflowerhour Common sorrel flowers, an elderflower head just opening, and tiny white flowers on goosegrass.

Three separate images. On the left, a close up of part of a taller sorrel stem with many dark pink buds just opening. Top right, an elderflower cluster, mostly with tight round cream buds. Some are just opening to show five white petals. Bottom right is of goosegrass, with its sticky leaves. A tiny white 4-petalled flower sits near the stem, at intervals, encircled by the leaves.

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Eirian @miltonei.bsky.social · 10/05/2026

#wildflowerhour #carrotsandpeas Cow parsley and common vetch intertwining prettily in an old orchard this week.

Under an old apple tree, in a grassy meadow, there are masses of white cow parsley flower heads, bright in the sun. Alongside, some rich dark purple pea-like flowers of vetch are scrambling upwards, their tendrils wrapping around the cow parsley stems for support. The vetch leaves remind me of miniature ferns.

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Eirian @miltonei.bsky.social · 03/05/2026

#wildflowerhour #buttercupchallenge I loved this week’s challenge! Managed to discover 4 different types: creeping, meadow, bulbous, and goldilocks buttercups, all in south Oxon.

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Eirian @miltonei.bsky.social · 26/04/2026

#wildflowerhour Some finds from the Chilterns today, up on the chalk escarpment, and in the woods: milkwort, salad burnet, bluebells, cowslips galore, sweet woodruff, wild strawberry.

A grid showing six different flowers found on the Chilterns today. Blue/purple milkwort, salad burnet looking like an exploded drumstick, bluebells, with the edges of the petals curling upwards, cowslips with rolling hills in the background, tiny white flower clusters if sweet woodruff in dappled shade and a couple of wild strawberries in flower - five white petals round a yellow centre.

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Eirian @miltonei.bsky.social · 19/04/2026

#wildflowerhour Variations in colour in green-winged orchids at #BBOWT Bernwood meadows today. A stunning display.

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Eirian @miltonei.bsky.social · 19/04/2026

#wildflowerhour It’s been a flowery week! Red campion, ivy leaved toadflax, marsh marigold, cowslip, green alkanet, hawthorn, field pansy, elderflower, dove’s foot cranesbill

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Eirian @miltonei.bsky.social · 12/04/2026

Early purple orchids just beginning to appear on Minchinhampton common. #wildflowerhour

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Eirian @miltonei.bsky.social · 12/04/2026

#wildflowerhour #woodlandplants Wild garlic out in force in a Gloucestershire wood today.

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Eirian @miltonei.bsky.social · 05/04/2026

#wildflowerhour #cowslipchallenge A group of cowslips at Wytham woods on Thursday. Some of the flowers have been nibbled by something.

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Eirian @miltonei.bsky.social · 29/03/2026

#wildflowerhour #treeflowers Wild Cherry, under a clear blue sky, earlier this week. Also ash buds bursting open. I am not sure if these are male or female. I don’t know how to tell the difference…?

Blue sky with a cherry tree covered in white blossom alongside a close up of one of the flower clusters.

The black buds of an ash tree opening to reveal purplish flower clusters on green stems.

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Eirian @miltonei.bsky.social · 22/03/2026

#wildflowerhour #storyplants Happy to see my first bluebells of this year. Ray Mears once used chewed bluebell bulb sap (careful - it’s toxic!) to make glue to attach flight feathers to an arrow - an ancient tool - with knowledge from the Hadza tribe. Also once used as a bookbinders’ glue.

A bluebell beginning to unfurl in the spring sunshine. The glossy narrow green leaves of hundreds of other bluebell plants are also emerging from the dried leaf litter under the beech trees of this Chiltern woodland.

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Eirian @miltonei.bsky.social · 22/03/2026

#wildflowerhour Warm sunshine at last. Marsh marigold, coltsfoot, wood anemone, and red-stemmed stork’s bill all emerging this week.

A grid of four photos of different wildflowers. Glossy yellow marsh marigold - a member of the buttercup family with 5 petals; yellow coltsfoot with its wild fringe of many petals; a wood anemone with 7 white petals and a pretty central yellow area; and a small storksbill with a red stem and 5 bubblegum pink petals

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Eirian @miltonei.bsky.social · 15/03/2026

#wildflowerhour #whiteflowers Deadnettle with its top nibbled off, a white red deadnettle, daisy, white violet.

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Eirian @miltonei.bsky.social · 22/02/2026

Shades of yellow this week, and variations in number and shape of petals. Celandine (this one reluctant to open in the rain) primrose, gorse, and aconite. #wildflowerhour