Leif Bersweden
@LeifBersweden
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Adventuring botanist 🌿 | Author, latest book #WhereTheWildflowersGrow 📚 | Encouraging you to notice the Dandelions 🌼 |📍UK
Joined May 2012
Today is #NationalMeadowsDay! Let me show you this Lakeland hay meadow and the wildflowers that call it home, it’s one of the most spectacular places I’ve ever been 🙌🙏
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If Holly (Ilex aquifolium) finds its leaves are being nibbled by deer, it switches genes on to make them spiky when they regrow. So on taller Holly trees, the upper leaves (which are out of reach) have smooth edges, while the lower leaves are prickly 🤙
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I pocket acorns as I walk. I recently emptied the contents of my coat and the autumnal diversity is just 😮💨🤌
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Forget-me-not fun fact: the yellow ring at the flower’s centre fades to white after pollination, signalling to insects there’s no more nectar. The insects therefore learn to visit the flowers that haven’t yet been pollinated, ensuring no forget-me-not flower is forgotten 🤙
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Okay, I am *obsessed* with the shapes and colours of oak leaves at the moment 😮💨🤌 How are they SO eye-pleasing?! 😍
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Have you ever noticed the buds on the trees in winter? I can’t get enough of them 😮💨🤌
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Forget-me-not fun fact: the yellow ring at the flower’s centre fades to white after pollination, signalling to insects there’s no more nectar 🤟
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Have you ever noticed the buds on the trees in winter? Next time you go for a walk take a closer look. They are *stunning* 🤗
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Oh my GOODNESS I’ve wanted to see this for ages! 🥳 Alders contain tannins that leach into gathering raindrops, dyeing the liquid with colour. The effect is *stunning*. This Alder (Alnus glutinosa) I came across was glinting gold, amber & deep wine red. How beautiful is that! 😍
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The trees are about to perform one of nature’s greatest magic tricks 🪄🥳 So as we bid winter goodbye, here are my favourite twigs & buds from February. They’re living jewels, don’t you think?
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I pocket acorns as I walk: I can’t help it, it’s just an instinct 🤷🏼♂️ Recently I emptied the contents of my jacket and the autumnal diversity is just stunning!! 🍂 here are a few of my favourites
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If Holly (Ilex aquifolium) finds its leaves are being nibbled by deer, it switches genes on to make them spiky when they regrow. So on taller Holly trees, the upper leaves (which are out of reach) have smooth edges, while the lower leaves are prickly 🤙
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Birds, your dinner is served: it’s BERRY season 🫐🍒 Loads of colour in the hedgerows right now 😮💨🤌
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The trees are getting ready to perform one of nature’s greatest magic tricks 🪄🤹🏼 Their leaf buds are tiny bundles of colour, all packed full of the promise of spring, and a wonderful source of winter joy 🙏. IDs below!
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There’s something magical about the joy gifted by winter trees 🤌✨ I found all these at the weekend, in one little square of woodland. January is a month of amazing botanical colours and shapes if you take the time to stop and notice 😌
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Winter trees make my heart happy 😍 For me, they turn a winter walk into a treasure hunt - there’s so much colour around if we look closely. I just *love* how they’re all exactly the same yet completely different at the same time, how head-pleasing is that?! 🤌
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My favourite botanical fact: sticky Bluebell sap was once used to bind books 🤙📚
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The other day I experienced one of those magical nature moments that brings tears to your eyes: I discovered bees sleeping in harebell flowers. Isn’t that wonderful?
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Did you know that little ferns are THIS cool 👉 🖐 __________________ 🤚
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Today is #NationalMeadowsDay! 🥳 The loss of our uplifting hay meadow habitats in the UK makes my heart hurt, so I want to share with you the secret for turning your lawn into a mini wildflower meadow for *free* 👊. 🧵 (1/9)
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My favourite botanical fact: sticky bluebell sap was once used to bind books 🤙📚
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Hemlock is only poisonous when ingested, something a child is v unlikely to do as it tastes awful. Hemlock is a beaut plant & food source for insects. Imagine if instead of killing nature this was used as an opportunity to *teach* kids about wild plants.
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I passed my PhD viva!! Which means I’ll soon be an official dorc* and now I can’t stop giggling 🤓😆. (*doctor of orchids 😉)
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Today is #NationalMeadowsDay! The loss of our uplifting hay meadow habitats in the UK makes my heart hurt, so I want to share with you the secret for turning your lawn into a mini wildflower meadow for *free* 👊. (1/7)
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One of my favourite botanical facts: bluebell sap was once used to bind books 📚
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Thousands of Tunbridge Filmy-ferns (Hymenophyllum tunbrigense) dripping from the trees - I felt it was worth picking one to share its river delta frond with you. Stunningly beautiful, isn’t it? Only one cell thick, like green cling film, a lover of damp places & shady tree trunks
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Is there ANYTHING more wonderful than a Bluebell wood on an April evening?! This one made me cry. The air was warm & infused with that rich-yet-light Bluebell smell, the wood was flooded with evening sunshine & Blackbirds were singing in the trees. I couldn’t have been happier 👌
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It’s #NationalMeadowsDay! Let me share with you one of the most fantastic wildflower meadows I’ve ever seen. It was brimming with native plants, buzzing with insects and altogether nature at its very best 🙌
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The first species of our #Couchto10mosses is the lovely Wall Screw-moss (Tortula muralis), a really common, cushion-forming species that loves hanging out on - you guessed it - walls! Here are three key features to look out for:. (1/8)
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If you haven’t done so already, track down your nearest bluebell wood and go walk there. They’re magical, restorative places that make you feel like this 👇
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Our three commonest heathers here in Britain & Ireland: Ling (Calluna vulgaris), Cross-leaved Heath (Erica tetralix) and Bell Heather (E. cinerea)
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The best of this week’s winter trees 🙌 Some really nice ones recently, absolutely love this time of year when they look like this!
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My new book, Where the Wildflowers Grow, is published TODAY 🎉🥳 It’s written with love on behalf of our wild plants, in the hope more people will notice, appreciate & protect them. I hope you enjoy it 🙏.
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Ohh the joy - the *joy* 🤌 - of going out on a sunny winter’s morning and coming across frosty oak leaves 😌 Isn’t it wonderful how the most simple, ordinary, everyday bit of nature can be so unbelievably magical and satisfying to look at?
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Winter tree buds providing hope and promise of spring 🌿 aren’t they so cool?!. IDs below ⬇️
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Can we just take a minute to pause & goggle & think about how *amazing* leaves are? Unfurled each spring from places so small even IKEA would be hard-pressed to flat-pack them any more effectively. What a world we live in. How lucky we are to have things as amazing as LEAVES 🤌🤌
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Wood sorrel (Oxalis acetosella) detects the change in pressure that comes just before rain, giving it time to protect those delicate, lilac-veined petals. If you suddenly notice the wood sorrel has closed its flowers, it might be worth getting the umbrella out ☔️. #wildflowerhour
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Reduced to tears in the street today as the council sprayed pavements with weedkiller. There are >40 species on this road, all small, no trip hazards, all neat. @OxfordCity WHY are you doing this? 😭 We’re in climate & biodiversity crises & #COP26 is going on *in our country*!
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Every year I get a stomach jolt when I first spot the hanging pink pea flower of a Grass Vetchling (Lathyrus nissolia), a secretive meadow specialist. What a treat!! Isn’t it a magical thing, that bright splash of colour just floating in midair?! 😍
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A forest within a forest 😍 I went for a sunset wander in the woods and zoomed into the tiny worlds around me. With one sweep of my eyes I could travel over vast expanses of miniature mossy forests that flowed away as far as I could see. It’s always worth looking down, isn’t it?
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At about this time of year I like to remind everyone of my favourite botanical fact: bluebell sap was once used to bind books 📚 it’s sticky and poisonous, perfect for glueing pages together and minimising insect damage!. How cool is that!
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Met oxlips (Primula elatior) for the first time this week, in an ancient Cambridgeshire woodland 🤩 The large creamy vanilla ice cream flowers, growing in amongst the bluebells, wood anemones & celandines, were utterly stunning! #wildflowerhour
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THIS is what a hedge should look like 😍 Big-berthed, bushy, Dog-roses spilling over leafy Hawthorns - wild, untamed & full of nature. Take photos of your best hedgerows (& hedge-wrecks!) & submit them for @ChrisGPackham’s Hedgerow of the Year here:
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I got to peer inside the hollow trunk of an oak the other day. What a complete and utter *privilege* to see where water & sugars once passed from root to leaf & leaf to root; to actually feel part of an organism likely more than 1,000 years old 😌
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Herb-Robert (Geranium robertianum) happily grows in overlooked places. It regularly gets ignored. It’s often stripped from walls & pavements. But it’s a beautiful thing, too. A joy-bringing thing. And well worth a second to notice & admire. Because what a leaf. What. A. Leaf 😍
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Imagine. Just *imagine* how great it would be if more of our road verges looked like this. A tonne of colour, amazing smells and absolute heaven for wildlife. Very good to see @ShetIslandsCll, this totally made my day 🙏👏
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Have you ever looked closely at umbellifer flowers? These starry constellations are from whorled caraway (Carum verticillatum), a class plant with incredible, pipe cleaner leaves. Small scale nature is amazing 👌🙏
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One of my favourite September activities is to sit in the sun near an oak tree, close my eyes & listen for the quiet plick-plock-thump of acorns pinballing between branches before falling to the ground. It might not sound like much, but that sound is just utterly wonderful ☺️
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Starting to think that I might, in fact, be a squirrel 👀🐿
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Botanical companionship is a really special thing. Plants don’t expect anything of you. You don’t have to make small talk. You can just sit there and enjoy each other’s company in a beautiful place 😌🌿
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One of my favourite species to meet on a wander is the Changing Forget-me-not (Myosotis discolor), a small, friendly looking plant of disturbed ground whose flowers start cream, then go pink before finally turning sky-coloured forget-me-not blue 👌
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This tiny Dilated Scalewort (Frullania dilatata) is BEAUTIFUL. I can’t fail to imagine a miniature dragon whenever I see this liverwort: it perches above, perfectly camouflaged, waving its tiny, red-scaled tail. Banger of a plant 🤙
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If you have a garden, leaving the lawn to grow is one of the simplest, easiest, most everyday things we can do for nature. It literally costs less money, takes less time, looks more colourful AND benefits wildlife all at the same time. How wonderful does that sound?! #NoMowMay
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This tiny (2cm 🤏), perfect thing is Wilson’s Filmy-fern (Hymenophyllum wilsonii). Its seaweed-mimicking, river-delta frond is only *one cell thick* and it’s so stunningly beautiful I literally can’t stop thinking about it 🤌😍
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Marsh gentians are like something out of a fairy tale. Their cobalt blue petals have fused into a mind-bogglingly beautiful trumpet flower, complete with *neon green* spots. I mean COME ON give the others a chance already 😎 #wildflowerhour
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Woohoo it’s time for @BBCSpringwatch! 😍🥳 Three weeks of Britain’s best nature from @RSPBArne, and this year I’ve been asked to bring a few plants to your TV screens 🙈 It starts tonight & I’m first on tomorrow - so excited plants are getting some airtime!
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A Bluebell wood is a treat beyond measure. We can say ‘the SMELL’ and wax lyrical about that perfect blend of blue & purple, but it’s impossible to get across just how special they are. It’s the kind of special you *feel*, but can never quite find the right words for. Heaven 🤌
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Yesterday I made friends with this pasqueflower (Pulsatilla vulgaris) 🤙 It was all alone, growing on the path away from the thousands of others on the slope, so I hung out with it for a while. It didn’t say much, but it totally made my day 💯🙏
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This stunning little thing is called Glittering Wood-moss (Hylocomium splendens). I love how it takes on that satisfying, round-bellied, tapering form we see so often in nature: in fern fronds, mosses & conifer trees. It’s one of my favourites & I just can’t get enough of it 🤌🤌
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Met Bog-rosemary (Andromeda polifolia) for the first time EVER yesterday!! I’ve looked at it in my ID book *countless* times over the years, but never clapped eyes on it in real life. I’m still buzzing aaah!! 🥳 Isn’t it COOL 😍
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Top tip for Cowslip (Primula veris) spotting: always, always wear appropriate camouflage, so they don’t see you coming and run away ☝️ Then you can get a close look without disturbing them.
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Do you want to know the secret for turning your lawn into a mini wildflower meadow for free? 🤭👊. Don’t worry, scythes aren’t mandatory…. (1/7)
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It’s Dandelion time! Have you noticed that ALL the Dandelions have suddenly popped up & started flowering? I found this one just hanging out (literally) on a wall. A pretty smart move - how could passing bumblebees POSSIBLY miss this big yellow doorbell on the wall?! 🟡
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I’ve seen some cool plants this week but honestly the CELANDINES 🤩 They just keep upping their game every week at the moment! #wildflowerhour
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Wooohooo have you noticed the willows recently? 😍 Every time I walk past this tree a few more of those bundles of fluff have gone POOF 💥 and it makes me really happy 😌
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Burnt orchids!! 🥳 These made me so happy my stomach did a somersault, I couldn’t get words out properly & just wanted to dance on the spot 🕺🏼 Except I had to try really hard NOT to because I was surrounded by 100+ orchids. Such a rollercoaster 🤷🏼♂️
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River tree treasures that make my heart happy 😍 All exactly the same and yet completely different, I could look at these shapes and colours for *hours* 😌
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Do you ever have those moments where you’re just sort of struck by how insanely beautiful something as simple as a frosty oak leaf is?
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Found a little hill covered in Field Forget-me-nots (Myosotis arvensis) - they’re just completely wonderful creatures 👌 Ohhh how I’ve missed them 🙏
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Have you noticed the willows erupting into flower? They’re like botanical fireworks at the moment! I walk past this tree most days and every time a few more of those fluffy willow paws have gone POOF 💥 I’d love to see a time lapse of them all coming out!
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Got a little hug from a plant that I’ve totally fallen for recently 🥺 Meet Tamarisk Scalewort (Frullania tamarisci) - tiny, branched like a cartoon dragon’s tail and translucent rusty red 👌😌
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I found myself under a Hawthorn (Crataegus monogyna) the other day, with that delicious feeling of having lost all track of time & spotted these little treasures. Love that we live in a world where, even when life turns to wintry hibernation, plants STILL gift us with such beauty
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What did we do to deserve Wood Anemones?! These weather flowers worship the sun, following its progress across the sky, close up when it rains to protect their reproductive parts (wouldn’t we all) & their lovely name ‘Windflower’ honours the delightful way they bob in a breeze 👌
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AH. I found one!! My favourite plant in the whole world, the bee orchid (Ophrys apifera) 🥳 I spent so long looking fruitlessly in nice remote places for this, then just checked the local retail park & there it was in the grass outside @BurgerKing 😂 Huge moment of excitement!!
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Meet ✨THE✨ Meadow Maker ✌️. Yellow-rattle (Rhinanthus minor), a crafty plant that nicks nutrients off of big grasses, opening up space for more species to grow. If you’re thinking of turning a space into a wildflower meadow then this is a plant you might want to get to know ⬇️
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So often we see plants with stems, leaves & flowers. But these elegant white stalks of Meadow Saffron (Colchicum autumnale) are, in fact, flower tubes. The ovary is at the bottom, tucked safely UNDERGROUND. No stems. Literally just flowers emerging from the earth. How. Cool. 😩🤙
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I was thigh-deep in a Scottish loch recently when I spotted Water Lobelia (Lobelia dortmanna) & just started *dancing*. I’m talking proper celebratory nature wiggles 🕺 ARGH. I can’t express the happiness of that moment 🤌 I’ve been waiting to see one in perfect flower for years!
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Final proofread complete. My new book #WhereTheWildflowersGrow is FINISHED 🥳. An entire year’s worth of work, written on behalf of our wildflowers - I’m so very very excited to share it with you all 🙏. Out 23rd June 2022 with @HodderBooks
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Ancient woodlands full of oxlips and bluebells 💚 what would we do without them? Volume up for that delicious birdsong. This is what we’re fighting for 💪. #EarthDay
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Tell me you’re a botanist without telling me you’re a botanist 🌿
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Nature, sometimes I just *can’t handle* you. My top weekend find was this English Oak (Quercus robur) leaf 👌😮💨 A wavy-edged wonder infused with the colours of pineapple, toffee & fox, all burning bright in the autumnal sunshine.
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I hate realising I never actually *looked* at a plant, just viewed it through a camera, so I try to spend time hanging out with them. Having checked the ground carefully, I lay down by this tiny frog orchid for a while. An incredibly therapeutic exercise, I highly recommend it 🙌
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Deep in the heart of Kentish woodlands, tucked away from the rest of the world, lady orchids (Orchis purpurea) have the art of self-isolation down to a T #wildflowerhour
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I have a new favourite thistle 🙋🏼♂️ These stonking great herbs are melancholy thistles (Cirsium heterophyllum), named because they were once used to treat ‘melancholia’, or depression. The giants of this wonderful hay meadow at @WildHaweswater - a truly spectacular place 👌
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First copy of my new book is a feeling I’ll NEVER get used to. It’s a big book (about the height of that pint glass 🍺), has 2 colour picture sections, my line drawings & a website with photos of all the plants 🤙 Out next week, preorder here if you fancy!
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Swimming with Yellow Water-lilies (Nuphar lutea) is PURE JOY 😌
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How beautiful are these winter twig illustrations? 😍 My sister painted them from my post the other day! If you’re on Insta go check out her account (@ sketch_paint_sketch), her artwork is really lovely
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Hi @Perfectly_Green I don’t believe that you or your clients put down artificial grass in the full knowledge of the impact it’s having on our planet, our food supplies etc, so I’m going to give you the benefit of the doubt. But please could I come talk to you about it?.
From desolate wasteland to luscious lawn in a day! 💚😎.More amazing work from Southdown Landscapes & Turf Co who specialise in #landscaping & #artificialgrass installations. #syntheticgrass #lowmaintenance #gardendesign #landscaping #outdoordesign #homeandgarden #landscapedesign
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The simple act of leaving a lawn to grow or not mowing a road verge during the summer might reveal something special. A change in mowing regime meant these pyramidal orchids (Anacamptis pyramidalis) had a chance to pop up - what have you discovered in your lawn or local verge?
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Came *very* close to falling headfirst into the bog (nope, not that bog 🙄🚽) while taking photos of water-violet (Hottonia palustris) this week. Cracking plant #wildflowerhour
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‘Primrose’ comes from the Latin ‘prima rosa’, the first rose. It isn’t a rose (in case you were wondering), but it’s a nice reference to one of the first flowers to start blooming in the spring. Here are my ‘prima rosas’ of 2021, braving the cold to say hi!
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Today is #NationalMeadowsDay and here's why walking through a wildflower meadow is one of life's greatest experiences!. @Love_plants @BSBIbotany @wildflower_hour @DrTrevorDines
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More bluebell woods for #wildflowerhour this week. I’m just so obsessed at the moment. We can say ‘the SMELL’ & ‘what an unbelievable colour’, but it’s tricky to articulate just how unique these places are. It’s the kind of special you *feel*, but can’t find the words for
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Mistletoe (Viscum album) moves from tree to tree with the help of its snotty fruit glue. Birds eat the fruits, fly to another tree & poop out the seed. Kept from tumbling to the ground by the gummy glue, the seed plugs itself into the bark & sprouts a new cloud of Mistletoe 🙌
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This is a well-managed verge packed with native wildflowers. It breaks my heart when the plants I love get replaced with seed mixes 💔 We must stand up for our native invertebrates AND our native wildflowers. The former need the latter, not a strange collection of annual plants
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Winter is a time for moss appreciation 🙌 This is rough-stalked feather moss (Brachythecium rutabulum), a really common species with silvery tips that loves a good tree trunk. I’m no moss expert (I know about 20 species 🧐) but we can learn together, what do you think?
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I’m so excited for the day I’m grown up enough to be able to buy a house by the sea (it *might* be a while 😆). All I want is to just sit in places like this and quietly watch the world go by please 🙏
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