2024
Bell Heather
0 Bell Heather Look out for bell heather, one of our three native heathers. It has bright purple-pink, bell-shaped flowers in spikes. It has needle-like leaves in whorls of three on fine flexible stems. It grows on heaths and drier part of bogs. All three native heathers support a wide range of invertebrates […]
1 November 2024
Foxglove Seedheads
Foxglove Seedheads Look out for foxglove seedheads – a stark contrast to the spikes of drooping purple bell flowers in summer. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder and we need to appreciate the autumnal display in the countryside, a key part of the cycle of life. Tiny seeds have been […]
31 October 2024
Cross-leaved Heath
Cross-leaved Heath Look out for cross-leaved heath, one of our three native heathers. It has pale-pink bell-shaped flowers in short bunches at the top of its stems. Its tiny needle-like leaves in whorls of four, making crosses on the stems, give the plant its name. It is a slender, straggling shrub up […]
18 October 2024
Ling Heather
0 Ling Heather Look out for ling heather in our peatlands – both raised bogs in the midlands and uplands throughout the country. It is a small shrub up to one metre tall and grows in drier areas, particularly dry heaths. Leafy shoots in opposite pairs on downy brown stems with overlapping leaves […]
8 October 2024
Common Knapweed
0 Common Knapweed Look out for common knapweed, one of our later flowering plants with occasional flowerheads still visible. Each deep reddish-purple compact flower with a swollen base of blackish bracts is solitary or in branched clusters. It resembles a thistle without any prickles. Grey-green simple lanceolate leaves grow alternatively up a stiff […]
3 October 2024
Devil’s Bit Scabious Flower
Devil’s Bit Scabious Flower Look out for devil’s bit scabious flower, which now stands out as one of the few plants in flower at this time of year. The attractive light bluish purple flowers are held in compact heads approximately 2 centimetres in diameter. It grows in semi-natural grassland, which has not […]
23 September 2024
Hazel Nuts
Hazel Nuts Look out for hazel nuts. Later empty hazelnut shells may be covered with pretty orange discs on short stems. This is one of many fungi associated with hazel, as is the scarlet elf cup found in leaf litter beneath hazel. Mushrooms are the fruiting bodies of fungi living in soil […]
23 September 2024
Sloes on Blackthorn
Sloes on Blackthorn Look out for sloes on blackthorn. This is the easiest time to distinguish blackthorn from whitethorn, which has the smaller red haws. Look at their leaves now, which can be also used in summer to differentiate them. Blackthorn leaves are entire oval shaped leaves similar in shape to the […]
23 September 2024
Parasitoid Wasps
Parasitoid Wasps Look out for parasitoid wasps who lay their eggs inside other insects, which sooner or later causes the death of these hosts. When the eggs hatch, the larvae have a readily available source of food. They play a vital role in in the food web. In Ireland, there are over […]
23 September 2024
Purple Loosestrife
Purple Loosestrife Look out for purple loosestrife with vibrant purple or magenta spires of flowers in dense whorls. Its later flowering at this time of year makes it a striking sight on damp roadside and watercourse margins. With deep roots and creeping rhizome or underground stem this tall plant of marshy ground, […]
26 August 2024