Dean Mac Cú Uladh

Marsh Clubmoss (Lycopodiella inundata) shoots creeping across a wet, bare substrate. The shoots are bottle-brush like, bright yellow-green with narrow, untoothed leaves sticking out from the main stem.

A series of Marsh Clubmoss shoots criss-crossing the flush, looking like a group of yellow-green centipedes running across the muddy ground

**BREAKING NEWS** - Marsh Clubmoss refound in Dunbartonshire, at a site where it was last recorded in 1854!

Being more-or-less evergreen, clubmosses make great botanical targets all year round. With that in mind, I set out to hunt for Marsh Clubmoss near Inveraran on the shore of Loch Lomond 🧵

Asplenium ceterach recorded from an old mortared wall in north Co. Louth (H32) - last recorded in this vicinity in 1966!

Find out more about Pyrola rotundifolia subsp. rotundifolia - including where it has been recorded in Ireland - on its #PlantAtlas2020 page:
plantatlas2020.org/atlas/2cd4p9...
This subspecies of Round-leaved Wintergreen has seen an overall "marked decline" since 1930 but we're not entirely sure why.

Plenty of Pyrola rotundifolia subsp. rotundifolia from a wet woodland of this west Monaghan lake - last years flowering spikes can still be seen. A very scarce species in Ireland!

Today’s lunchtime walk:

Butterbur, spindle, young giant hogweed and Carex pendula tufts

Things are starting to stir, botanically!

This week as part of the NI Botanical Skills Project we had three days of Conifer ID with Charles Shier at Castlewellan Arboretum. We covered 20 species likely to be seen as either a native, naturalised or ornamental. A lot of homework to do!

@bsbibotany.bsky.social @bsbiireland.bsky.social

Coillín galánta is ea sin!

Happy to see my two unis Aberystwyth and Queen’s Belfast got through the first round of BUC!

The yellow flowers of American Skunk-cabbage bloom in the bog garden at RHS Harlow Carr

Sea Bindweed, with pink and white trumpet flowers, blooms in a sand-dune on the Sefton Coast

The latest issue of #BritishandIrishBotany is out!
It's our Open Access, online scientific journal.
6 papers inc @bsbiscience.bsky.social on garden escapes, a new hybrid grass, @floodplainmead.bsky.social on Scotland's wet grasslands, a hawkweed, drift seeds & sea bindweed:
bsbi.org/about/news/l...

In Carlingford, Co. Louth**

Porella platyphylla from the mortared walls of the promenade in Co. Louth. Appears to be a first for the Cooley Peninsula and the first record of the liverwort from the county in a few decades!

@bbsbryology.bsky.social

Photo of a moss plant that’s light green in colour. The moss plant is largely covered in a bright orange slime mold that looks like hundreds of tiny grapes all bunched together along the length of the moss plant.

Slime mold on moss. NWT, Canada.
#myxomycete #fungifriends #moss

The lovely liverwort Plagiochila spinulosa growing in there too!

A small leafy liverwort on a twig

A rowan tree in the foreground covered in epiphytes with conifers behind

Feathery green moss on a rock

A boulder stream with conifers on the banks

Colura calyptrifolia on rowan and plentiful Hyocomium armoricum on granite boulders at Yellow Water, Rostrevor, Co. Down

How amazing would this place be if it had some native woodland? Missed opportunity for restoration

Thug mé cuairt Uaimh Thalún na Fionnaise agus Liagán Áine, Co. An Dúin inniú

Tá an uaimh 29m ar fhad - iontach suntasach

Bhí na radharcanna ó Liagán Áine dochreidte, agus na Beanna Boirche ó dheas. Ainmníodh é i ndéidh Bandia an tSamhraidh, Áine

This is an amazing record if this rare fungi that is closely linked to temperate rainforest. Not before observed in the SE of Ireland!! Wow

That’s amazing! Definitely record it somewhere because that’s really interesting!!

Wow Donna! Is this a known site? I wasn’t aware of it being in the southeast

Scapania ornithopoides. Céad uair agam an speiceas seo a fheiceail agus an chéad suíomh dhó sna Mám Toirce cé go bhfuil roinnt maith cuntais dhó ó na beanna beola. Rud aláinn a bhfaca mé fhéin agus @timoceallaigh.bsky.social lá oíche nollaig

New site record of Hymenophyllum tunbrigense for Co. Louth (H31) growing in a rocky woodland on a minor hill. Happy to find this one today. A very scarce species in the county.

@bsbiireland.bsky.social
@bsbibotany.bsky.social

#ferns #botany #filmyferns

Maith thú! Ba bhreá liom é seo a amharc

Likely Rhabdoweisia crenulata growing at high altitude on a NE rock face. Another first for me and the maamturks/Mám toirce records it seems. Thanks @nimbosaecology.bsky.social for ID help

Dryopteris affinis s.s on my St Stephen’s Day walk yesterday. Every day is a good day for some fernology

I am pretty confident with this one

@bsbiireland.bsky.social @bsbibotany.bsky.social

#ferns #botany

Chonaic mé é ar fhuinseog, cuileann, caorann agus darach fosta, ag úsáid craobhóga coill fós, creidim

Fontinalis squamosa from Bavan, Cooley Mountains, Co. Louth in upland boulder stream

Doesn’t seem to be previously recorded from this region

@bbsbryology.bsky.social

Close up photo of a moss plant that appears to be decorated like a tree, with black bulbs (slime mold sporangia)

Mosses love to decorate with slime molds. Northwest Territories, Canada.
#slime #fungifriends #myxo #moss #bryophyte #botany

November - Bazzania trilobata

This was a lovely large liverwort of humid woodland to find for the first time and marks the best find for November. Ness Country Park in Derry was really productive for temperate rainforest species and will be worth returning to.

October - Lobaria pulmonaria

A visit to northwest Donegal was productive for finding the lovely lungwort. This site had good populations of it, and other old-growth lichens which were nice to see for the first time too.

September - Daltonia splachnoides

This was the month I came across Irish Daltonia and was over the moon. I found it first in Monaghan and then in Antrim, which were first records for those counties. I’ve subsequently found it in a few other places!

August - Asplenium ceterach

Another fern, rustyback from southwest co. Armagh. A common fern but it’s always evaded me. A very distinctive and charismatic species and one I was happy to find on an old mortared wall.