Skullcap
The delicate, tube-like, violet-blue flowers of Skullcap bloom from June to September in damp places, such as marshes, fens, riverbanks and pond margins.
Water vole by Terry Whittaker/2020VISION
The delicate, tube-like, violet-blue flowers of Skullcap bloom from June to September in damp places, such as marshes, fens, riverbanks and pond margins.
Look for the pretty, star-shaped, white flowers of Lesser stitchwort in woodlands and meadows, and along hedgerows and roadside verges in spring. Its flowers are smaller than those of Greater…
The Marsh helleborine is a beautiful orchid of fens, wet grassland and dune slacks. Growing in profusion in places, look for reddish stems and white-and-pink flowers.
Wood melick is a slender, drooping grass that grows in dense patches in ancient woodlands and along shady banks. It has nodding flower heads, with brown, egg-shaped spikelets that contain the…
The cormorant is an excellent fisher. It is most easily spotted when it is perched, stretching its wings out in the sun to dry after a dive. The UK holds internationally important wintering…
Look for the unusual flowers of lords-and-ladies in spring woodlands: a pale green sheath surrounds a spike of tiny, yellow flowers. This spike eventually forms a familiar, short stalk of striking…
Giants of the jellyfish world, these incredible creatures are the UK’s largest jellyfish! They can grow to the size of dustbin lids – giving them their other common name: dustbin-lid jellyfish.…
This distinctive black and red bug is an increasingly common sight across much of Britain.
The thick topshell is a common sight on rocky shores in Wales and South West England.
A good luck charm for travellers, Germander speedwell can be seen along roadsides, grassy lanes and hedgerows. Look for clumps of bright blue flowers.
This beautiful beetle only arrived in the UK in 1960s but is now a common sight on garden herbs.
This big, beautiful fungus is a common one that can often be spotted popping out of trees.