New favourite sedge!

Proliferodiscus pulveraceus and Stictis radiata. And what they look like from afar. I love the way that a few spots on a twig can become a wildly colourful world when you look at it under a hand lens. Essentially (and stupid as it sounds) it’s my prescription for the blues, every time.

I found some in central Hants too - took me a while as it looked completely different to the neat, showy tufts I’ve found before in the summer

A terrace of Whorl-grass comes close though!

Nothing beats a glossy emerald drift of Stream Water-crowfoot- back in this stretch of the River Arle in quantity after decades of scarcity

A curl of Water Figwort in bloom - a late addition to the #NewYearPlantHunt list

Straggly tufa-encrusted Cratoneuron filicinum from the banks of the Itchen at Winchester while waiting for a mot. Common name is Fern-leaved Hook-moss but this form was more Hookless Drab-mo. Stout nerve (pic 2), big auricles on branch leaves (2), rhizoids (3) and paraphyllia (4) give the game away

Walked the perimeter of Alresford today and found 44 species for the #NewYearPlantHunt
Most surprising: Water Avens
Tallest: Hybrid Water-speedwell
Most reliable: Spurge-laurel (always out at this time of year)
Most annoying: Opposite-leaved Golden-saxifrage (just about to pop but no open fls yet)

Thousands of plants of Jersey Cudweed lining a road verge near Southampton Water. I guess it’s the botanical equivalent of a £100,000,000 bat tunnel: joke ecology, wasting everyone’s time and driving disaffection with conservation across the board. Hoping NE delist it asap

Out looking at Spartina meadows on the edge of Southampton Water yday. Loving all the ergotic Common Cord-grass - but the bright orange rust on the ergot sclerotia is new to me - anyone got a name for this peculiar thing?

Dingy green 1mm ‘tongues’ growing with the liverwort Microlejeunea ulicina on Willow bark in wet woodland. Grazed/old slime mould sporocarps, right? Right??? If so, which species/genera have multiple stems that coalesce halfway up? In the books I have most species have a discoid hypothallus instead

Breathing opportunity

Sheffield station, waiting for Dionne. Initially far more drawn to the vacant lot than the water feature but - Bryum pseudotriquetrum/ old hand lens in pocket - hours of fun

…this particular lizard for instance

Initiating proceedings here with a pic of some moss on pony dung. Not sure if it’s a comment on 2024, Twitter, or just finding gorgeousness in unexpected places, but here’s the wonderful, holly-leaved Splachnum ampullaceum