Sunday 28th April is the #InternationalDayOfTheDandelion & we are celebrating it with this week’s #WildflowerHour challenge! Post pics of Dandelions, interesting facts or share examples of how important it is for wildlife using the hashtag #DandelionChallenge , this Sunday 8-9pm!

Just spotted through the window, a little cutie on the patio 😍🦔

21/4/24 Teesdale - The earliest Spring #Gentians (Gentiana verna) are starting to appear and they are indescribably wonderful. There’s not much else out in Teesdale - as you’d expect for mid-April - but I did wonder what I’d see, given how early the #orchids are #wildflowerhour

Early Purple Orchid this weekend at the edge of some English Bluebells in a small Kentish woodland. It was good to take a moment to walk alone here and reflect.

A gorgeous day for exploring Llanymynech Rocks. Lots of beautiful wildflowers to admire, from Early Purple Orchids, stately Cuckoo Pints, swathes of Greater Stitchwort and so many Cowslips & Primroses, their love child, the False Oxlip could also be found! #wildflowerhour

We travel abroad, we visit museums and galleries, we dream of faraway places. But there are hedge banks HERE, ready to be marvelled: whole exquisite worlds of mosses and bluebells, of leaves as beautiful as cut glass, of greens of real plants, not painted. On. Our. Doorsteps.

Wonderful to chat with Rebecca Cornwell today about Shetland's rare plants, and the shadows that the passage of time and the hand of man have cast upon them.

Can you help Rebecca Cornwell Rebecca Cornwell? She's working with UHI Institute for Northern Studies MountainStudiesUHI & Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh to research how historical writings about Shetland's wild plants eg Shetland Mouse-ear 👇 help shape our modern understanding of rare plant ecology & how this informs conservation.

Have you seen a Cowslip in bloom this year? This week’s challenge is to find one and share your pics for #wildflowerhour this Sunday using the hashtag #CowslipChallenge . Happy flower hunting! 💛

I've always wanted to see a truly hypochromic Serapias tongue orchid - an extreme one - but until today had only ever looked longingly at photos of these great rarities in books. That changed this afternoon when my Mariposa Nature Tours co-leader Andreas Corso found this beauty... 😳

14/4/24 Lancashire - A couple of weeks after the early flowers appeared, some variation is starting to become apparent among the Green Winged (Anacamptis morio) and Early Purple (Orchis mascula) #orchids . This pair of particularly magnificent plants caught my eye #wildflowerhour

3/4/24 Rhodes - This little jewel caught my eye on Profitis Ilias; Tempsky's Romulea (Romulea tempskyana). A little-known species with a narrow range, it is scattered through the Eastern Mediterranean. Seen co-leading the Mariposa Nature Tours #OrchidsOfRhodes tour with Jon Dunn 🇺🇦

Overcast skies and heavy showers could not dampen my joy at seeing my first #orchids of the year today! In North Wales, the gorgeous Green-winged Orchids, Anacamptis morio are just starting to open! 😍

I’m so, so excited, I’ve booked a place on this wonderful holiday for next year, can’t wait!😀

We are asking you to look up for this week’s challenge as trees have flowers that are both fascinating & beautiful! It’s easy to take part, find wild & naturalised trees in bloom & share your pics for #WildflowerHour this Sunday 8-9pm using the hashtag #TreeFlowers !🌳🌼

Too late for last night’s #wildflowerhour but just spotted the first Wild Garlic beginning to open 😍

On my walk, I dodged the showers in search of violets for #wildflowerhour . Common Dog-violets are now in bloom, forming pretty posies with the Primroses. I especially love the delicate little branched markings on the lower petal, so beautiful! #VioletChallenge 💜

Look at this ! It’s an ancient woodland & SSSI . Where is the accountability , where is the law , where is the respect & where is the understanding that we are now fighting tooth & nail for nature & everything matters . C’mon Environment Agency and Natural England let’s get this sorted

Today had already been a brilliant day for our Orchids of Rhodes tour with a great many lovely orchids of many species seen... and then this happened.

A flavescent form of Ophrys calypsus found by tour leaders Jon Dunn 🇺🇦 & Dr Richard Bate. 💛

More treasures to follow tomorrow...

Can you find a violet for #wildflowerhour ? Commissioned by us & created by Moira O'Donnell, you can find our special ID sheet here! wildflowerhouruk.weebly.com/uploads/1/4/0/… Share your finds for the magic hour this Sunday 8-9pm using the hashtag #VioletChallenge 💜