A summer visitor, the wheatear is a handsome chat, with black cheeks, white eyestripes, a blue back and a pale orange chest. Look for it on upland heaths and moors.

A dark, stocky warbler, the Cetti's warbler is most likely to be heard, rather than seen - listen out for its bubbling song among willow, marsh and nettles.

The yellow flower heads of common ragwort are highly attractive to bees and other insects, including the cinnabar moth.

The birch polypore only grows on Birch trees. This leathery bracket fungus has a rounded, coffee-coloured cap that was once used for sharpening tools, hence its other name: the 'Razorstrop…

The vast, green mats that sometimes cover the surface of still water, such as ponds, flooded gravel pits and old canals, are actually Common duckweed. A tiny, single plant, it groups together to…

Introduced from Japan in the 19th century, Japanese knotweed is now an invasive non-native plant of many riverbanks, waste grounds and roadside verges, where it prevents native species from…

Living up to its name, the Robin's pincushion is a red, round, hairy growth that can be seen on wild roses. It is caused by the larvae of a tiny gall wasp that feeds on the host plant, but…

The monkey-puzzle tree is unmistakeable with its pyramidal shape, jutting branches and stiff, dark green 'spines' (its leaves). Widely planted in the UK's parks and gardens, it is…