Rebecca Wheeler
banner
botanybeck.bsky.social
Rebecca Wheeler
@botanybeck.bsky.social
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
Pinned
A Crimson Waxcap looking even more beautiful bathed in sunbeams! 🌞
Hygrocybe punicea, Elan Valley.
#fungi #mushroommonday 🍄📸
Reposted by Rebecca Wheeler
The first flowers of Green Hellebore are starting to open, part of a thriving population in a wood in deepest east Kent #wildflowerhour
December 28, 2025 at 7:22 PM
Just a few spotted whilst out on a recce for the upcoming @bsbibotany.bsky.social #NewYearPlantHunt Clockwise from top right Scentless Mayweed, Common Hogweed, Bush Vetch, Common Daisy and Hazel catkins with a pale female flower. #wildflowerhour Will they still be in flower next week? 😀
December 28, 2025 at 7:22 PM
In recent years, I usually see the odd pink anemone-like female Hazel catkin before Christmas. I was surprised this week though to see so many fully open male catkins & producing lots of pollen too!!!! #wildflowerhour
December 21, 2025 at 7:34 PM
A lovely walk in sunny Llandudno yesterday & happily I managed #thewinter10 😀 🔁 From top left, Fumitory, Ivy-leaved Toadflax, Sweet Alyssum, cheeky goats! 🐐 Tree Mallow (at Penmaenmawr) Groundsel, Feverfew, Antirrhinum, Daisy & in centre Dandelion & Gorse. #wildflowerhour
December 14, 2025 at 7:09 PM
Reposted by Rebecca Wheeler
Lovely to catch up with these two botanical superstars at yesterday's #BIBConf25!
@naturelark.bsky.social (on left) and @botanybeck.bsky.social, the driving force behind @wildflowerhour.bsky.social!
Looking good, #wildflowerhour ladies!
November 30, 2025 at 8:34 PM
After recent frosts, it was slim pickings on my walk today for #wildflowerhour. The brightest pop of colour from Spindle berries. Flowering faithfully for months, there was just one flower on the Ivy-leaved Toadflax & a few Ivy flowers remaining, don’t think they will last for the #NewYearPlantHunt!
November 30, 2025 at 7:27 PM
Reposted by Rebecca Wheeler
Ophrys lucis, your 'orchid of light' on Rhodes.

I enjoyed shedding some light myself today. Remember the time a competitor who boasts of his conservation credentials lobbied BSBI to refuse charitable donations from my wildlife tour company?

I do. It's an illuminating tale.
November 29, 2025 at 7:56 PM
Reposted by Rebecca Wheeler
We're ready to share hosts of orchids with lots of people today at the brilliant @bsbibotany.bsky.social conference at Edge Hill University.

'Orchid Summer' author @dunnjons.bsky.social & Ghost Orchid finder @thenewgalaxy.bsky.social will be there all day, and would love to see you!

#orchids
November 29, 2025 at 9:06 AM
Reposted by Rebecca Wheeler
Discussing the Ghost #Orchid and its current status in the British Isles at the @bsbibotany.bsky.social Botanical Conference 2025, handily been put next to the @mariposanature.bsky.social stand so I can talk about our tours too, where you can come and see Ghost #Orchids in the wild if you want to!
November 29, 2025 at 2:13 PM
Spent a lovely day visiting my daughter so my #wildflowerhour finds this week are from the Rodley nature reserve in Leeds. Fourteen spotted in flower for this week’s #thewinter10! Also lovely to see Nettle-leaved Bellflower, one which had escaped me until now 😀 Names below ⬇️
November 9, 2025 at 7:21 PM
It’s always nice #fungifriends to see a species for the first time, so I was super happy to see this lovely Stubble Rosegill, Volvopluteus gloiocephalus today with another interesting little fungus right at its feet! They were like tiny nails!! #MushroomMonday #FungiFriday
November 9, 2025 at 7:20 PM
At first glance on my walk this afternoon, it didn’t seem like much was in flower but upon closer inspection I soon spotted twelve in bloom for the start of #thewinter10, the #wildflowerhour challenge for the winter months. See ALT for names ☺️
November 2, 2025 at 7:07 PM
I’ve seen some beautiful grassland fungi for #WildFungiHour in the last few days. 🔁 from top left Mealy Pinkgill, Dark Fieldcap, Parrot Waxcaps, Persistent Waxcaps looking like flowers, Blackening Waxcaps, Poppies for #WildflowerHour & lastly gorgeous Crimson & Scarlet Waxcaps🥰
October 26, 2025 at 8:00 PM
Reposted by Rebecca Wheeler
I don’t know about you but I’ve seen lots of fungi this week, shall we have a #WildFungiHour tomorrow for #WildFlowerHour & celebrate all those wonderful diverse grasslands that ‘flower’ in the autumn too! All the wild blooms that you’ve spotted in the last week are welcome too of course! See ALT ⬇️
October 25, 2025 at 4:09 PM
The craziest coloured Parrot Waxcaps I’ve ever seen!! Aren’t they amazing!!!! 💚🩵💛🩷🧡

#FungiFriends #MushroomMonday
October 20, 2025 at 3:27 PM
A lovely day yesterday seeing some of my favourite waxcaps 🥰 It was wonderful to see them again even though some weren’t looking quite their best because of the recent dry weather. Also saw Earthy, Snowy, Slimy, Blackening, Golden & Pale. 17 waxcaps in a day is not bad!! #FungiFriday #MushroomMonday
October 19, 2025 at 10:56 AM
A lovely pair of parrots for #FungiFriday 🦜🦜
Gliophorus psittacina
#FungiFriends
October 17, 2025 at 6:27 PM
Here’s a strange fungus #fungifriends, the Blushing Rosette, Abortiporus biennis. It has 2 growth forms, it can form an attractive rosette but more commonly exists as an amorphous mass which exudes red-brown liquid. Just look at those guttation droplets!!! 😍
October 8, 2025 at 6:44 PM
Not seen this one before #FungiFriends, think it’s Green Brittlegill, Russula aeruginia, found beneath Silver Birch. Caps of the mature specimens were very green, younger ones were paler. Stipe chalk white & tapering at base, gills white & crowded. Such a pretty mushroom 💚
#FungiFriday
October 8, 2025 at 5:14 PM
I think, #fungifriends, this might be the prettiest Blusher, Amanita rubescens, I’ve ever seen!! Isn’t it beautiful! 🥰

#MushroomMonday #FungiFriday
October 7, 2025 at 7:16 PM
These lovely bramble flowers caught my eye this week for #WildflowerHour 🥰
October 5, 2025 at 6:52 PM
Perfectly purple, Amethyst Deceivers, Laccaria amethystina are looking glorious in the woods! 💜
#FungiFriends #FungiFriday
October 2, 2025 at 6:52 AM
Not seen this one before #FungiFriends, found it emerging from a very decomposed log in mature deciduous woodland. It reminded me of a Pluteus species. Could it be Pluteus chrysophlebius? Thank you in advance ☺️
#FungiFriday
October 1, 2025 at 8:01 PM
WOW #FungiFriends! My favourite Amanita spot didn’t disappoint!!! I nearly lost my mind, a whole FAIRY RING of Fly Agarics, some as big as dinner plates!! 🥰🍄🍄🍄🍄🍄🍄🍄🧚
#FungiFriday
October 1, 2025 at 7:09 PM
How flooofy is this Webcap! I’ve not managed to see a Cortinarius species at this stage before where the web-like universal veil is stretched from the bulbous base to the edge of the cap. Perfectly illustrates why they are named Webcaps!!
#FungiFriday #FungiFriends
September 30, 2025 at 5:44 PM