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Marsh Ragwort, Jacobaea aquatica, Geln Moidart in the Scottish Highlands. An attractive species in a most attractive setting. #WildflowerHour

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Erica tetralix & cinerea (Cross-leaved Heath & Bell Heather). Glen Moidart in the Scottish Highlands. #WildflowerHour

Erica cinerea & tetralix (Bell Heather & Cross-leaved Heath) in flower.

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wildflowerhour @wildflowerhour.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Devil's-bit Scabious, Succisa pratensis is such an important late-flowering plant. The roots appear bitten off (Succisa = cut from below). This was done by the devil (according to folklore, citation needed) hence the links between the botanical and common names. #WildflowerHour #Folklore #Etymology

Devil's-bit Scabious, Succisa pratensis. In flpwer at Glen Moidart in the Scottish Highlands.

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Reposted by Neil Forbes

It’s Sunday & it’s 8pm so it’s time for #wildflowerhour!! Please share your pics of the wild & naturalised plants you’ve found blooming in the last week from across Britain & Ireland ☺️

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Autumn Hawkbit, Scorzoneroides autumnalis. A classic late-summer / autumn flower (although it can and does appear earlier in summer too). #WildflowerHour plantatlas2020.org/atlas/2cd4p9...

Autumn Hawkbit,
Scorzoneroides autumnalis in flower. Glen Moidart in the Scottish Highlands.

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This Many Years Ago @thismanyyearsago.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Almost any other policy area and politicians would be falling over themselves to get on board. A significant majority of people care about #nature. It is integral to our future and yet it is still so often treated as a fringe issue with lip service, indifference & a total lack of comprehension.

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Reposted by Neil Forbes

64 years ago, on the 27th of September 1962, Rachel Carson's book Silent Spring was published. It handled the environmental harm caused by the pesticide DDT and the disinformation spread by the chemical industry. Carson managed to sway public opinion and even policy. #otd #history 🗃️

Rachel Carson photo credit: Science History Images / Alamy

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Neil Forbes @treebeard793.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

Autumn Hawkbit, Scorzoneroides autumnalis, growing as an aquatic emergent plant near Coniston Water. Fair to say that water levels have been rising pretty quickly over the last couple of weeks. #WildflowerHour

Autumn Hawkbit, Scorzoneroides autumnalis, in recently flooded area. Near to Coniston Water.

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A well known site of course but this was a new location within the reserve for me. Carex flava at Roudsea NNR. #WildflowerHour #favouriteplant #Cumbria

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Another #favouriteplant from this year, I have quite a few 😁 Great to see Rock Sea-lavender, Limonium britannicum thriving at both of it's Cumbria locations. #WildfllowerHour

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Spring Sandwort is one of my favourite plants and Farleton Knott is a special place for them. #WildflowerHour #favouriteplant

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Sedge hunting in spring is very much a favourite part of the botanical season, and there are several (many) favourite plants here, especially Carex elongata 💚 #WildflowerHour #favouriteplant

📷 from Hay Bridge Nature Reserve and Rusland Moss NNR:
Carex vesicaria, remota, canescens, nigra, binervis, echinata, demissa, caryophyllea, otrubae, pallescens & elongata.

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It was a pretty good year for Bird's-nest Orchids in Cumbria. Quite a few seen in this woodland back in May and June. #WildflowerHour #favouriteplant #Cumbria

Bird's-nest Orchid,
Neottia nidus-avis. Cumbria woodland

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Probably my favourite find of the year was a flourishing colony of Portland Spurge growing alongside Yellow-wort at Hodbarrow. Both rare plant register species in Cumbria. #WildflowerHour #favouriteplant @rspbengland.bsky.social #Cumbria

Euphorbia portlandica, Portland Spurge. Growing on consolidated iron ore slag at Hodbarrow RSPB nature reserve, Cumbria.

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Pete M 🌳 @pete-m.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

Adding more than a splash of colour to the drabbest of urban settings. Scarlet pimpernel, Lysimachia (formerly Anagallis) arvensis 🏵️🌱💚 Westmoreland General car park, Kendal.My #favouriteplant from today for #WildflowerHour #Cumbria

Scarlet pimpernel, Lysimachia arvensis growing as a pavement plant in the car park of Westmoreland General Hospital, Kendal (Cumbria)

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Reposted by Neil Forbes

You often hear that the Welsh uplands are naturally treeless — too high, too wet, too exposed — and that the evidence for it is upland tree cover declining from the late Mesolithic, before farming even arrived. In Eryri, the pollen record shows the opposite. 1/🧵

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Reposted by Neil Forbes

Count Binface @countbinface.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

Riddle me this. If somebody donates £36 million to a political party and £5 million to its leader, how is the £5 million not political? Asking for a parliamentary standards commissioner.

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Reposted by Neil Forbes

wildflowerhour @wildflowerhour.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

For the last weekly challenge, we want to know what was your favourite plant that you’ve spotted from across Britain and Ireland this year? Share your pics for #wildflowerhour this Sunday 8-9pm using the hashtag #favouriteplant and we’ll celebrate it with you! 🥳🌿🌸

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Neil Forbes @treebeard793.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

I know I go on about prolifery a lot, but that's because it's amazing - plants producing plantlets directly from the flowers, which then break off and, in some cases, root and grow. In this example - Juncus acutiflorus. @bsbibotany.bsky.social #Wildflowers #Nature bsky.app/profile/tree...

Juncus acutiflorus producing plantlets directly from the flowers - prolifery.

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Reposted by Neil Forbes

MFCarter @mfcarter.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

Here’s a truth that lands harder every year.

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Reposted by Neil Forbes

The Onion @theonion.com · 30/08/2026

Cockroaches Feeling Very Optimistic About Future Of Planet theonion.com/cockroaches-feeling-ve…

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I always think that Sea Sandwort (Honckenya peploides) has a very other-wordly appearance, even going by the standards of other strandline plants. #WildflowerHour at Haverigg Dunes, Cumbria

Honckenya peploides, Sea Sandwort. Haverigg Dunes, Cumbria

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A huge patch of Hare's-foot Clover at Haverigg Dunes, #Cumbria #Seedheads for #WildflowerHour

Trifolium arvense, Hare's-foot Clover. Haverigg Dunes, Cumbria

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Always happy to find this one - Blysmus rufus, Saltmarsh Flat-sedge. Stable distribution in South Cumbria, but lost from many of its former sites on the Solway. Usually associated with freshwater seepage on upper saltmarsh. #WildflowerHour www.cumbriabotany.co.uk/the-flora-of...

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Thistles, under-rated by almost everyone, despite their attractiveness (some species more than others admittedly) but, more importantly, for their huge contribution to wider biodiversity 💚

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Very much at the other end of the #seedheads spectrum, Yellow Glasswort (Salicornia fragilis) - Salicornia's have some of the least showy flowers in the plant kingdom. Haverigg, #Cumbria #WildflowerHour

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Neil Forbes @treebeard793.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

Carpets of White-beak Sedge, Rhynchospora alba at Hay Bridge Nature Reserve in the Rusland Valley. #Sedge #Seedheads for #WildflowerHour

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The dynamic coastline at Haverigg Dunes. The coast path sign hasn't been in that long, and won't be visible in a couple of years if accretion continues. Always fascinating to see extensive areas of Common Reed grading into pioneer dune as well as saltmarsh. #Coast #SandDunes #Nature #Cumbria

Haverigg Dunes. Accreting foredune ridge around England coast path sign.

Common Reed with sand accretion. Haverigg Dunes, Cumbria.

Pioneer coastal habitat. Haverigg, Cumbria.

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Reposted by Neil Forbes

MapQuest @mapquest.com · 27/08/2026

We’re not changing it.

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Some #CommonNames are somewhat more confusing than quirky. For e.g. Spike-rushes (Eleocharis) which are not rushes but sedges, sedge-allies or non-Carex Sedges. Once you realise that botanical names are so much more useful for learning, its a gamechanger (at least it was for me). #WildflowerHour

Eleocharis uniglumis, Ribble Estuary (archive 📷)

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Feverfew is a slightly quirky #CommonName. An archeolophyte that was, unsurprisingly, introduced centuries ago as a medibical herb. Here growing as a #PavementPlant on the Ribble - #WildflowerHour

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Flowering Rush, a somewhat quirky name, also a good example of why English names are often unhelpful to beginners (yet many people instinctively believe that they are easier 🤔). A lot of #CommonNames are quirky, even more are misleading. #WildflowerHour

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So, how about Hybrid Monkeyflower for a quirky #CommonName? Erythranthe x robertsii. An invasive, cultivated hybrid involving two non-native species that is particularly common in upland habitats, & aldo the lowlands in NW Britain. Milldale, Peak District. #WildflowerHour

Hybrid Monkeyflower
Erythranthe guttata × lutea = E. × ⁠robertsii

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Two Sea-lavenders, growing with their hybrid on the Ribble Estuary. Common Sea-lavender (Limonium vulgare), Lax-flowered (L. humile) & hybrid (L. × ⁠neumanii). #WildflowerHour

Top left: Limonium x neumanii, Top right: L. humile, Bottom: L. vulgare

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Vaccinium vitis-idaea, Cowberry or Longonberry for #WildflowerHour. It's name translates as vine of mount ida.

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Carline Thistle, Carlina vulgaris for #WildflowerHour It often gows #ByTheSea on fixed dunes, here on limestone grassland, this being one of the few weeks of the year when I haven't had an opportunity to go to the coast either for work or pleasure.

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Lesser Meadow-rue, Thalictrum minus - a true calcicole, here on limestone scree outcrops at Helsington Barrows. A few hundred years ago this site would have been right #ByTheSea, & the Lyth Valley would have been an amazing mosaic of saltmarsh grading in raised mires. #WildflowerHour in #Cumbria

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Knotted Pearlwort often grows #ByTheSea (as well as inland). Here it is growing in the uplands by a track next to some degraded blanket bog that some would call heather moorland. A slight digression for #WildflowerHour

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