Who needs fireworks when you’ve got a Fothergilla in the garden? Our dwarf witch alder (F. gardenii) has exploded into its autumn colours. Small, slow growing & with fragrant flowers in spring, it’s a knockout shrub that deserves to be much more widely grown

This is the time of year for a favourite Old English word: the leaves are 'fallowing', from the verb fealwian, 'to turn yellow-gold'. In Anglo-Saxon poetry fealo (fallow) is the golden-brown shade of fire, linden shields, bay horses and autumn leaves. They fallow, then they fall.

Surely the most spectacular lip of any orchid? Pleione x Confirmation is a hybrid between two autumn-flowering species, P. maculata and P. praecox. It flowers once it’s dropped its leaves and grows easily in our unheated conservatory #houseplanthour The Mathers Foundation

Borrowdale has to be my favorite place in Cumbria, especially as it is packed full of amazing mosses and liverworts. Here is a thread of just some of Borrowdale's special bryophytes, most of which we saw yesterday. (1/14) BBSBryology CumbriaWildlifeTrust

Atmospheric walk with the dog this morning Matt Taylor Derek Brockway - weatherman #StormHour

We're hearing reports of Rowan, Horse Chestnut & Blackthorn bearing both fruit & flowers this autumn; Iolo Williams & others have observed the same phenomenon in Hawthorn; and Donna Rainey saw Wood Anemone in bloom last week.
Are you making similar observations in your area?

Who needs a bit of beautifully burnished birch bark to finish off Friday? I just adore the rich colours glowing in the autumn sunshine. The paler bands are lenticels - porous tissue with large gaps between the cells to allow air into the trunk.

All of them, but especially Small Fern, 1967

This week we wrote to Ranil Jayawardena MP expressing our concern at the #AttackOnNature .
We call on #UKGovt to honour its commitment to our wild flora, to reverse biodiversity loss & to recover nature for future generations:
bsbi.org/letter-to-secr…
Julia Hanmer Lynne Farrell BSBI President Kevin Walker

Trevor the botanist Bloomsbury Wildlife British Wildlife Mag BSBI: Botanical Society of Britain & Ireland Plantlife wildflowerhour Sophie Leguil Dr Mark A. Spencer Morethanweeds Wonderful. A much maligned but essential, magical, multicultural, inclusive and ever-surprising aspect of our flora. And if 'urban' stretches to periurban brownfields like Swanscombe & Canvey Wick, they help support some of the best insect assemblages in Britain.

Trevor the botanist Bloomsbury Wildlife British Wildlife Mag BSBI: Botanical Society of Britain & Ireland Plantlife wildflowerhour Sophie Leguil Dr Mark A. Spencer Morethanweeds Look forward to it-should be a fascinating read! Bit like the people-plants from all corners of the globe enrichening our cities & suburbs.

It’s not just trees that are connected by the ‘wood wide web’, orchids play the same mycorrhizal trick

If you have any interesting stories or plants you’d like me to include please do get in touch. I can’t wait to get writing as it’s such an exciting (but strangely neglected) subject. Publication will be in 2024

From walls & pavements to canals, green roofs, urban meadows, lawns, street trees and everything in between, I’ll be exploring all aspects of botany in our built environments