Martin Nickol

Eucalyptus torquata 🩷 #wildflowerhour #flowers #beautiful

Gemeiner Hohlzahn (Galeopsis tetrahit) - hier auf einer Kiesbrache. Er gehört zu den Pflanzen die da sind ohne wirklich wahrgenommen zu werden. Er ist ein Kulturfolger, der sich den Acker/Gartenbau der Menschen zu Nutze macht. Junge Blätter sind essbar.

Sunflowers are made up of hundreds of smaller flowers in near perfect symmetry

Magnolia grandiflora 'Galissonière Nana'

Ghost flowers (Monotropa uniflora) rise from the forest floor like pale seahorses. They lack leaves, roots and chlorophyll because rather than manufacturing food from sunlight, they steal it from an underground fungus.

Heath Spotted #orchid on Toe Head #Cork

It’s not often you see a Common Spotted Orchid with a brick backdrop but I can include this little beauty for the #UrbanPlants challenge as most excitingly it has seeded itself in my garden! 😍 #Wildflowerhour

Summer-flowering hedge bindweed (Calystegia sepium) is also known as “granny-pop-out-of-bed”. An old game played by children is to grasp the flower by its calyx and squeeze, making the corolla detach and ‘pop’ off, while chanting “granny, granny, pop out of bed!”. #FolkloreSunday

In my humble opinion, there can never be too many Bee Orchid photos on social media - so here are some from Powerstock NR in Dorset, today. #orchid @DorsetWildlife

Taken exactly 97 years ago this month - in June 1928 - this beautiful autochrome study of a German garden in Baden is a wondrous riot of colour. I just love the 'twenties outfit with cloche hat and aqua marine scarf! It is all original colour, not colourised. 😍

My absolute favourite 💙 Mertensia maritima, Oysterplant Such a joy to see this gorgeous plant again this week! Caithness #WildflowerHour

I miss botanizing. 🌱

I found a way of reading Ice Age symbols, sparked an academic debate, and raised questions about the history of our species. Bennett Bacon recounts how he used the Library to make an extraordinary discovery: bit.ly/BLBennettBacon

Bulbophyllum globiceps Schltr., from section Brachystachyae, is a warm to intermediate growing miniature epiphyte usually found in the lowland forest of New Guinea (0-1200m) but I've actually found this plant a few times all the way up at c.1600masl. This is the only species I grow from this section, which is not surprising given that there are only 2 native to this island. The cluster of flowers at the end of the spike, known as an umbel, is as spectacular as it is small; 25-40 of them in a ball that measures little more than 1cm across! Kind of like a tiny lantern on a stick... [video] ° ° #nature is my #garden with all the #amazing #tropical #orchids, #plants and #flowers of Papua New Guinea! 🌺🌿🇵🇬

Spectacular Jade Vine (Strongylodon macrobotrys) at Kew Gardens.

Echte Ochsenzunge (Anchusa officinalis) - hier auf einer Brache. Sie hat eine kräftige Pfahlwurzel, die mehr als 1 Meter tief wachsen kann. Interessanter Farbwechsel der Blüte, blüht karminrot auf und wechselt dann zu blau. Alte Färberpflanze.

#Krautschau - Rundblättrige Glockenblume (Campanula rotundifolia) zwischen Pflastersteinfugen. Sie kann Wurzelausläufer machen und sich so u.a weiter vermehren. Dort wo sie häufiger vorkommt darf man einige Blüten pflücken, diese sind essbar.

This has to be my favourite colour combination of the week for #WildflowerHour #WildFlowerShow Kidney Vetch and the first Bee Orchids. @wildflower_hour

Today on a roadside in southern Italy, I found picris broomrape (Orobanche picridis), a rare parasitic plant that sends up ambitious spears of white blossom. It is my gift to conjure these plants out of the earth wherever I go 💫