Ian Senior

🚨 Strikes on Iran are unleashing toxic pollutants that will linger for DECADES — poisoning air, water, soil, and every living thing.
This isn’t “collateral damage.”
This is deliberate ecocide.
Humankind just proved once again: we are heartless and despicable.
#IranStrikes #ToxicLegacy

‘Drinking from a fetid pond’: superbug-creating genes found in UK’s largest lake Exclusive: Lough Neagh, which supplies drinking water for 40% of NI, contains genes resistant to last-resort antibiotics

Superbugs resistant to antibiotics are rising fast. I tested water at Lough Neagh (40% of Northern Ireland’s drinking water) & found high levels of antibiotic-resistant genes from human & livestock poo. If we treat waterways like sewers, this is what we get. www.theguardian.com/environment/...

I did 😄
On the laurel next to west cemetery. Wondered if its that species you found there a few years ago?

How the humble hornwort could supercharge agriculture Scientists have found a way to boost the efficiency of rubisco — the enzyme that powers life on Earth — and hope to transfer it to crops.

New research from @fernway.bsky.social and collaborators shows how hornwort concentrates CO₂ around rubisco—the key photosynthesis enzyme. The discovery could help create crops that grow faster, use less water, and need fewer fertilizers. grist.org/food-and-agr...

How an alga makes the most of dim light by rearranging ordinary chlorophyll To survive in areas where it is difficult to photosynthesize, some organisms adopt unique strategies. Osaka Metropolitan University researchers have found that a freshwater alga captures far-red light as an additional energy source by arranging ordinary chlorophyll in an extraordinary way.

A freshwater alga adapts to low-light environments by assembling ordinary chlorophyll a into unique protein structures, enabling efficient absorption of far-red light for photosynthesis. doi.org/hbsjfk

Sorted! 😂

Cottonweed Achillea maritima - reintroduced to Hayling Island, Hampshire - has toughed out the winter winds and sandblasting. @bsbibotany.bsky.social

Saw it today too. Lots of it everywhere!

Orchis X sezikiana

#Orchid

Solitary bee

Solitary bee

Spotted my first solitary bee of the year today. @vannabartlett.bsky.social

Striking fungus after the rain

Shiny green orchid leaves on bare ground.

Shiny green orchid leaves on bare ground

Following a report of a Lizard Orchid, supposedly in Worcestershire, where it has never been recorded previously, I was given a likely area to check, so went to search today.
Amazingly, not only was it true, but there were in fact 3 rosettes, 2 of which are very large and will flower this year!

Such cool plants...

@bramblebotanist.bsky.social @jo-the-botanist.bsky.social one to look out for?

Thismia mirabilis K. Larsen
Khao Yai National Park, Thailand 🇹🇭

#botany #plants #mycoheterotrophic #Thismiaceae #Thismia #fairylantern

Wow, love the dark purple to black of these plants and its flowers.

New #Thismia description just dropped in @phytokeys.pensoft.net
Please welcome Thismia selangorensis, a beautiful new mitriform species described by Siti Munirah from vicinity of Kuala Lumpur #Malaysia

doi.org/10.3897/phyt...

Cool, new and very rare fairy lantern plants!

Monotropa callistoma is a newly discovered ghost plant from China that doesn’t need sunlight to grow!

Curious to find out more? Read on here: doi.org/10.3897/phytokeys.271.177609

Pulsatilla grandis, one of the early bloomers in dry grassland habitats in northern Pannonia

Adonis vernalis, another early bloomer of dry grasslands in northern Pannonia

A small bird perches on a thin branch amid lush green leaves. Credit: Claire Lok Sze Tsui.

Prof David Richardson from @biouea.bsky.social has been the senior researcher on a study that has uncovered a hidden link between gut health and the immune system – all thanks to a tiny island bird.

Read more: https://bit.ly/4cIV4vs

#ResearchMatters #NewStudy #GutHealth

Scientists looked beneath one of oldest trees on Earth. What they found is astounding | Discover Wildlife The researchers discovered a hidden world of life among the roots of Chile's ancient alerce trees. Here's why that's important.

Reminder that life in soil doesn't just _support_ #Biodiversity. It IS biodiversity

#Fungi #SoilHealth
www.discoverwildlife.com/plant-facts/...

Climate Change Threatens Alpine Plants Before They Ever Get the Chance to Grow New experiments in the Australian Alps reveal how warming, drought and fire quietly undermine plant survival.

Climate Change Threatens Alpine Plants Before They Ever Get the Chance to Grow
www.botany.one/climate-chan...

New experiments in the Australian Alps reveal how warming, drought and fire quietly undermine plant survival.
#Botany #PlantScience

Long Overlooked as Crucial to Life, Fungi Start to Get Their Due Fungi create soil, sequester vast amounts of carbon, and contribute $55 trillion to the global economy, but knowledge about them is scarce. Now, mycologists are pushing to get the international scientific community to recognize fungi on the same level as plants and animals.

Fungi create soil, sequester vast amounts of carbon, and supply the nutrients needed to sustain trees — but knowledge about them is scarce.

Now, mycologists are pushing the scientific community to recognize fungi on the same level as plants and animals.

Cup fungus. Peziza mosera ( id confirmed by GF et al)

Stalked Bonfire Cup, Geopyxis carbonaria (id confirmed by GF)

Common Liverwort, Marchantia polymorphia

After the devastating wildfire on Fylingdales, it's interesting to see the appearance of some fungi specialising in fire sites, and a liverwort growing on bare damp soil.
@fylingdalesed.bsky.social @northyorkmoors.org.uk

First thing: don't come flocking to the Purbecks coast expecting to see these amazing orchids in good numbers just yet. I am local to the area, and finding any this time of year is down to years of accumulated knowledge of where the earliest plants flower - along with appreciation of conducive weather conditions. Wait until around mid-April to see them at their best., when they flower in tens of thousands!

A little collage of the Ophrys sphegodes I saw on the Purbeck coast 11.03.26. Please read the ALT text if you are thinking of visiting 😉 @bsbibotany.bsky.social @wildflowerhour.bsky.social @ukorchids.bsky.social @withylake.bsky.social

a tightly-packed panicle of flowers with five flaring white petals around a cluster of nearly a dozen yellow stamens with a few styles thrown into the mix too.

a virginia saxifrage seen from the side. the plant has a basal rosette of green leaves with scalloped margins, also a bright red tint at the margins too very lovely. up from the center of the rosette grows a stout red stem absolutely covered in fine white hairs that would probably be really annoying to climb up if you were a lil bug. at the top of the red stem there's a dense panicle of flowers with five white petals with nearly a dozen yellow stamens plus a few styles in the center.

virginia saxifrage growing on a steep rock ledge, a very common place to find them. the lower parts of the escarpment are mostly bare rock, while brownish-green moss has managed to colonize a short crease above. in the center, saxifrage rosettes cling to the uneven rock & send up flowering stalks topped with bunches of white flowers.

🌼 virginia saxifrage 🌿
Micranthes virginiensis

#nativeplants #ecoregion71

A group of Cedar Cups Geopora sumneriana growing among Chickweed and grass underneath a young Cedar of Lebanon. Last recorded by me under more mature cedars elsewhere on the site almost exactly six years ago, 08/03/2020

Cedar Cup Geopora sumneriana half buried in soil

A mature Cedar Cup Geopora sumneriana splitting at the margins to form a star-shaped concave disc

A minor car-crash means I'll be staying local for a while (no damage to me luckily) - but I found treasure on my doorstep during an afternoon walk to Thorpe Hall - a group 17 Cedar Cups - and quite a lot of holes suggesting others may have already been eaten by squirrels...

#fungifriends