iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Stephen Plummer @stephenplummer.bsky.social · 12h

Back in 2019 I discovered this weird fungus erupting from bugs in a Field Maple tree. Perhaps appropriately it was at night by torchlight in a graveyard in Lidlington, Bedfordshire. It now looks likely that it is Entomophthora erupta, and may even be the first British record!

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Stephen Plummer @stephenplummer.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

Red-belted Polypore is one of my favourite fungi. These specimens were in the Suldtal in the Bernese Oberland today, and I’m already looking forward to searching for some back in the UK!

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Stephen Plummer @stephenplummer.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

12 species of Cotoneaster during today’s Wildflower Society walk on Portsdown Hill, but the star was the rare Dartford Cotoneaster (C. obtusus) with its wonderful purple fruits.

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Stephen Plummer @stephenplummer.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

I wasn’t expecting to come across this Chicken-of-the-woods in the middle of town this afternoon!

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Stephen Plummer @stephenplummer.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

Larder Beetle (Dermestes lardarius) found and potted by my wife on top of our bed. Apparently they like corpses amongst other things!!😂

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Stephen Plummer @stephenplummer.bsky.social · 28/05/2026

5 years ago this week I managed to find the Tufted Saxifrage and Snowden Lily at Cwm Idwal, and the Snowden Lily again on its mountain namesake (terrible photos but a wonderful experience!). Have I still got the umph to climb high and find the rest of the mountain plants on my list?😃

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Stephen Plummer @stephenplummer.bsky.social · 23/05/2026

Hoverfly love - 1 minute of the stunning Brachypalpoides lentus.

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Stephen Plummer @stephenplummer.bsky.social · 15/05/2026

Some nice plants from yesterday: Pheasant’s-eye, Meadow Clary, Cotswold Penny-cress and Trumpet Gentian 😃

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Stephen Plummer @stephenplummer.bsky.social · 07/05/2026

Hoverfly love - a confiding female Merodon equestris right outside our front door!

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Stephen Plummer @stephenplummer.bsky.social · 21/04/2026

A wonderful 4 days surveying Dandelions in Essex with over 50 new species recorded between the two vice-counties. Great company and some beautiful countryside, too!

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Stephen Plummer @stephenplummer.bsky.social · 09/04/2026

The Eden Project has as many fascinating unannounced species as signposted ones! Here are 3 from a trip on Monday: Cornish Dandelion (T. cornubiense), Ring-legged Earwig, and a stunning Adanson's House Jumper spider (Hasarius adansoni), found on a plant in the gift shop!!

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Stephen Plummer @stephenplummer.bsky.social · 07/04/2026

2 Unarmed Stick Insects on the side of the house where my son and his family are staying in Rock, north Cornwall, were an unexpected but wonderful find today!

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Stephen Plummer @stephenplummer.bsky.social · 04/04/2026

Common Hermit Crab and the spectacular St Piran's Hermit Crab emerging from their shells (Polzeath rockpooling, Cornwall).

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Stephen Plummer @stephenplummer.bsky.social · 03/04/2026

The stunning south Devon speciality Dandelion, Taraxacum pseudomarklundii, on a bridge at Tavistock today - look at those leaves!!

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Stephen Plummer @stephenplummer.bsky.social · 24/03/2026

Common Frog & Common Toad at Clophill Lakes this afternoon

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Stephen Plummer @stephenplummer.bsky.social · 24/03/2026

After literally shaking hundreds of Grape Hyacinth stems over a number of years it was both joyful and a relief to finally find the associated smut, Antherospora hortensis! 😄

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Stephen Plummer @stephenplummer.bsky.social · 17/03/2026

First flowering Cowslip of the year and a Common Toad in its usual place behind the compost heaps

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Stephen Plummer @stephenplummer.bsky.social · 06/03/2026

Robins are known for their fights, even to the death. Blue Tits….not so much!

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Stephen Plummer @stephenplummer.bsky.social · 06/03/2026

One of the big signs of Spring for me: male Hairy-footed Flower Bees buzzing and zipping around in the Kings Arms Garden, Ampthill

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Stephen Plummer @stephenplummer.bsky.social · 05/03/2026

10+ years searching - totalling countless hours staring at early blossom from various trees and shrubs - today I finally encountered the early spring hoverfly, Melangyna quadrimaculata on flowering Blackthorn. I couldn’t catch it, so the photo is from Steve Falk’s Flickr resource: my 9500th species

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Stephen Plummer @stephenplummer.bsky.social · 05/03/2026

This year I'm going to try and catch up on a number of the fascinating Downy Mildews that I've yet to see. This is Peronospora ficariae - common on Lesser Celandine leaves in Lidlington graveyard, Bedfordshire.

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Stephen Plummer @stephenplummer.bsky.social · 04/03/2026

Really pleased to record this Scenicus cingulatus spider on the Clophill Lakes NR fence yesterday: only the second post 1990 record of this species from Bedfordshire.

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Stephen Plummer @stephenplummer.bsky.social · 02/03/2026

The hoverfly season got underway for me on Thursday when a male Cheilosia grossa turned up on a Willow Catkin at Clophill Lakes NR - at 14.21 hrs - cue a short song and dance!! Today I came across another one at Storton's Pits NR, Northampton which returned frequently to bask on my hand!

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Stephen Plummer @stephenplummer.bsky.social · 18/02/2026

The beautiful Turkeytail (Trametes versicolor) and Splitgill (Schizophyllum commune) at Clophill Lakes NR

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Stephen Plummer @stephenplummer.bsky.social · 05/02/2026

Spain has been very cold, very windy and very wet, too, so it was great to find this Paper Wasp and Egyptian Grasshopper here in Almeria earlier today.

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Stephen Plummer @stephenplummer.bsky.social · 24/01/2026

I was really surprised to find a Great Willow Aphid whilst sieving leaf litter at Clophill Lakes NR yesterday. Apparently they can be quite active this time of year - mainly on the tree, I guess - but disappear from April to June when no one has discovered where they go! Leaf litter perhaps?

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Stephen Plummer @stephenplummer.bsky.social · 21/01/2026

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article... In 2024 I spent a day in Margaret’s company on an Alchemilla workshop where she climbed over a 5-bar gate and was up and down on her knees demonstrating various plant features. In the afternoon I held her hand as we walked beside the River Tees. What an amazing woman!

bbc.co.uk

Teesdale botanist and mountain rescue team founder turns 100

Dr Margaret Bradshaw receives a card from King Charles and Queen Camilla on her 100th birthday.

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Stephen Plummer @stephenplummer.bsky.social · 20/01/2026

A wonderful suite of winter-flying moths on the Clophill Lakes NR visitor centre: Spring Usher, Winter Moth & Early Moth.

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Stephen Plummer @stephenplummer.bsky.social · 06/01/2026

When I prepared for Saturday’s New Year Plant Hunt at Clophill Lakes NR I thought that 15 species of flowering plants would be our maximum total, so I was amazed (and a tad alarmed) to record 28 species with 25 people present. Field Penny-cress, Thyme-leaved Speedwell and Musk Mallow pictured here.

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Stephen Plummer @stephenplummer.bsky.social · 08/12/2025

My son, John, really wanted to experience the weird and wonderful Starfish Fungus at Oxshott Common in Surrey. Work prevented a day visit, so we went down at night: crazy, but fun. The fruiting fungi are going over now but a single egg is showing promise!

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Stephen Plummer @stephenplummer.bsky.social · 03/12/2025

Following the visit to West Cowes Cemetery I took the chain-link ferry across the river in order to visit East Cowes Cemetery where this beauty was waiting for me: Podoscypha multizonata 😃

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Stephen Plummer @stephenplummer.bsky.social · 03/12/2025

Clavulinopsis umbrinella under Cedar in Northwood Cemetery, West Cowes, Isle of Wight this morning

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Stephen Plummer @stephenplummer.bsky.social · 28/11/2025

Pterula multifida, a birthday gift at Parkhurst Forest, Isle of Wight 😃

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Stephen Plummer @stephenplummer.bsky.social · 17/11/2025

It was nice to catch up with one of the Clophill Lakes Otters this afternoon, if briefly!

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Stephen Plummer @stephenplummer.bsky.social · 16/11/2025

Wow, wow, wow: Mycena pseudocorticola and, finally, Mycena meliigena, occurring together on moss-covered oak branches in quantity (this is just a small section). A friend spent years looking for M. meliigina every time she came across M. pseudocorticola! [Rushmere CP, Bucks]

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Stephen Plummer @stephenplummer.bsky.social · 12/11/2025

Piggyback Rosegill (Volvariella surrecta) on Clouded Funnel near High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, today.

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Stephen Plummer @stephenplummer.bsky.social · 02/11/2025

Some nice fungi on today’s Bucks Fungus Group foray: Violet Webcap, Olive Oysterling and Toothed Jelly Fungus (The Webcap was picked up from another site on the way).

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Stephen Plummer @stephenplummer.bsky.social · 12/10/2025

2 weird, wonderful and rare fungus species from the BMS Autumn Foray: Squamanita paradoxa taking over the fruiting body of its host, and Hypomyces leoticola growing from the base of its ‘Jelly Babies’ host (the slimy green ‘tongue’)!

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Stephen Plummer @stephenplummer.bsky.social · 10/10/2025

Clavaria zollingeri (Violet Coral), my 2001st fungus species, but the one that I was most hoping to catch up with during my time in Scotland . Turns out it was on the lawn of the estate where we are staying…it also turns out that it should be called Clavaria violaceopulchre as zollingeri is in Java!

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Stephen Plummer @stephenplummer.bsky.social · 09/10/2025

The hall that we’re working in for the British Mycological Society’s Autumn Foray in Dumfries is cavernous!!

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Stephen Plummer @stephenplummer.bsky.social · 06/10/2025

First evening at the BMS’s Autumn Foray based in Dumfries and the signs are already promising with lots of species of fungi just outside the front door of the lab. We were also treated to a show-and-tell by Thomas Lassoe

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Stephen Plummer @stephenplummer.bsky.social · 05/10/2025

It was a privilege to be a part of the #UKFungus day at College Lakes NR and to see the passion of the Bucks Fungus Group members and the enthusiasm of those visiting

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Stephen Plummer @stephenplummer.bsky.social · 02/10/2025

A mystery Bolete from Pullingshill Wood, Marlow, that’s causing some excitement. It will be DNA-sequenced and, hopefully, the species will be revealed!

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Stephen Plummer @stephenplummer.bsky.social · 01/10/2025

An amazing foray in Pullingshill Wood, Bucks, this morning, including Rubroboletus rhodoxanthus and possible Suillelus mendax

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Stephen Plummer @stephenplummer.bsky.social · 30/09/2025

It was a privilege to spend a day with the renowned Libby Houston in the Avon Gorge, especially under her special Hornbeam: Sorbus x houstoniae

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Stephen Plummer @stephenplummer.bsky.social · 29/09/2025

Chuffed to have just found a Shieldbug species new to Bedfordshire: Southern Green Shieldbug at Clophill Lakes NR

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Stephen Plummer @stephenplummer.bsky.social · 26/09/2025

It looks like an Arrhenia that I found during the BMS's 2024 Autumn Foray may be new for Britain: Arrhenia glauca [Yew Tree Brake Cemetery, Cinderford]

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Stephen Plummer @stephenplummer.bsky.social · 24/09/2025

Boletus satanus - Satan’s Bolete - at last!!😅

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Stephen Plummer @stephenplummer.bsky.social · 22/09/2025

Black-footed Polypore, Rooting Shank and a frog at Clophill Lakes this afternoon!

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