Common comfrey
The drooping, tubular, pink flowers of Common comfrey are a familiar sight to many gardeners. Sometimes considered a 'weed', this hairy plant can be used as an organic fertiliser and a…
The drooping, tubular, pink flowers of Common comfrey are a familiar sight to many gardeners. Sometimes considered a 'weed', this hairy plant can be used as an organic fertiliser and a…
Meadow crane's-bill has striking violet flowers that pepper hay meadows, verges and grasslands with colour in summer. It is also a popular choice for gardeners and attracts a wide variety of…
Gnarled veteran oaks are interspersed with groves of pale, elegant birches, while swathes of bracken and soft tussocks of wavy hair-grass cover ground from which autumn fungi sprout.…
The rare wildcat is so similar to a domestic tabby that interbreeding is a serious threat to its survival. Although known as the 'tiger of the Highlands', it is shy and elusive, making…
The stately Grass-of-parnassus displays pretty, white flowers with green stripes. Once widespread, it is now declining as its wetland habitats are disappearing.
Tall melilot was introduced into the UK as a fodder crop, but has now become naturalised. It displays golden, pea-like flowers on tall spikes, which are followed by black, hairy seed pods.
Niamh loves to feed the birds, so makes natural feeders out of pinecones and berries, to help them through the winter. She’ll tie this to a branch so that the birds can feast from it safely.
The grey plover is similar to the golden plover, but as its name suggests, has a silver- and black-speckled back, rather than a gold one. It is only found at the coast and is mostly a winter…
Despite its name, the large blue is a fairly small butterfly, but the largest of our blues. It was declared extinct in 1979, but reintroduced in the 1980s and now survives in southern England.
The marsh hair moss is the largest moss in the UK. Look out for it in damp woodland and on boggy heathlands where it forms large, green and spikey 'cushions'.
An uncommon tree of wet woodlands, riverbanks and heathlands, Alder buckthorn displays pale green flowers in spring, and red berries that turn purple in autumn.
As the only crow with a red bill and red legs, the all-black chough is easy to identify. But it's harder to spot: there are only small, coastal populations in Scotland, Ireland, Wales,…