Well-known for its role in making beer, Hop is a climbing plant that can be seen in woodlands and along hedgerows and field edges. Its female flowers bear the cone-like fruit that is used in beer…

The wigeon is a colourful duck that can often be spotted wheeling round our winter skies in large flocks. A dabbling duck, it surface-feeds on plants and seeds in shallow waters.

As its name suggests, Deadly nightshade is a highly poisonous plant. Its black, shiny berries may be tempting but fatal. Found on chalky and disturbed ground, such as scrub or verges, it has bell-…

A fleshy herb of the wet margins of brooks, streams and ditches, Brooklime can be seen all year-round and provides shelter for tadpoles and sticklebacks.

Pellitory-of-the-wall is a small to medium-sized herb that frequently grows from cracks in old stone walls, pavements, cliffs and banks, and churches and ruins.

As the name suggests, the Common medium stonefly is found in gravelly upland rivers and streams, often on bankside stones and plants. There are 34 species of Stonefly in the UK, which are hard to…

Saw-wort gets its common name from the serrated, saw-like edges to its leaves. It is a plant of unimproved hay meadows and woodland edges, its purple, thistle-like flowers appearing over summer.…

Often seen carpeting the floor of ancient woodlands, Dog's mercury can quickly colonise, its fresh green leaves shading out rarer plants. It is also very poisonous.

The English oak is, perhaps, our most iconic tree: the one that almost every child and adult alike could draw the lobed leaf of, or describe the acorn fruits of. A widespread tree, it is prized…

The common prawn is a familiar sight to anyone who has spent time exploring rockpools - particularly their characteristic quick dart into the darkness just as you spot them!

Tansy is an aromatic plant of rough grassland, riverbanks and verges that has button-like, yellow flower heads. It is the main foodplant of the rare Tansy Beetle, now found at only two places in…