Sea couch #SeedHeads, some infected with ergot fungus. On the sand dunes at Bridgwater Bay. #WildFlowerHour

And on the fungal side, my first puffballs of the year.

And a rather deceptive plant: this is actually Lesser knapweed, but a rayed form, so it looks like Greater knapweed flowers on a Lesser knapweed plant!

I always enjoy getting the chance to go out botanising in the field with the @wildflowersociety.bsky.social . This morning's plants included Silver cinquefoil Potentilla argentea, and the stunning hybrid goat's-beard Tragopogon x mirabilis.

Ash flower galls, caused by a mite, Acerina fraxinivora. A heavy infestation like this will reduce seed production but won't kill the tree.

Viper's bugloss in the evening sunlight #WildFlowerHour #HairyPlants

This week I've been in France for a project meeting of our JPI-AMR project, Aerobiomics-AMR. Between meetings, we saw one of the Cyclone spore traps in action, visited Arvalis field trials with very high levels of brown rust, and stayed in the lovely town of St. Quentin.

For the #WildFlowerHour #PinkFamily challenge, White campion with bonus #WildPlantDisease Anther smut.

First celandine of the year! #WildFlowerHour

#TheWinter10 part 3 (chickweed is behind the Shepherd's purse)

#TheWinter10 part 2

Spring must be on the way, I found #theWinter10 just walking to the shops. Red deadnettle, white deadnettle, daisy, dandelion, groundsel, common field speedwell, green alkanet, shepherd's purse, chickweed, storksbill. #WildFlowerHour

Egret spotted on the @niab-uk.bsky.social Cambridge trial ground today.

Brilliant talk by @sandyknapp.bsky.social at @bsbibotany.bsky.social conference on the importance of taxonomic botany for food security (among many other things): quantifying evolutionary rates and adaptive potential in crops requires a detailed phylogeny of wild relatives for comparative studies.

And for anyone who's been looking at Jake's interesting plant pathogens poster on the next board, you can find out more about #WildPlantDisease including downloadable spotter sheets with 10 common species, on the @bspp.bsky.social website www.bspp.org.uk/wildplantdis...

I'm here representing @wildflowersociety.bsky.social, if you're here come and say hello!

So I finally joined 🦋 during the train journey to London for the @bsbibotany.bsky.social British and Irish Botany Conference. Lovely to see a full house of botanists at the Natural History Museum.