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4AD nut, shoegazer, ex Plant Biologist now Web Developer at Oxford Uni. Committee Member of the Friend's of Earlham Cemetery. Fungi botherer & flora finder with some of Norfolks best botanists & field mycologists Mastodon: @[email protected] Twitter: @Ians4AD

If you were to count out a million seconds, it would take you 11 and a half days. A billion seconds would take you 31.7 years. But a trillion seconds would take 31,700 years — to reach that point today, you would have needed to start counting around the time that neanderthals went extinct.

You're watching a leptocephalus ("slim-head"), the larval stage of an eel. Wait for the unrolling! You can see why early naturalists thought they were their own species, but this little guy will grow up into an adult eel, if he manages to stay concealed. (📷: Robert Stansfield, Blackwater Cozumel)

I'm a bit late for #wildflowerhour as per usual but South Stack Fleawort (Tephroseris integrifolia subsp. maritima) has to be worth a post! I'm sure many a botanist will recognise this view.

Dropped by Betteshanger to see the 2nd largest GB population of Lizard Orchid Himantoglossum hircinum. A great site to understand the ecology of this species where it can be observed in abundance in extensive wild conditions.

Hard-as-nails grasses on the Hayling Island coast in south Hampshire today. Sea Fern-grass Catapodium marinum, Sand Cat's-tail Phleum arenarium, Dune Fescue Vulpia fasciculata. @bsbibotany.bsky.social

Small Blue has been spreading north in the UK for some time. In Norfolk Cranwich Camp has been a stronghold in recent years. We have now started to receive sporadic reports from Blakeney Point. Easily overlooked but if you do spot one please do record on iRecord. 📷 Bob Eade BC

First ever global mapping of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi shows scale of hyphal systems that sustain plant life Our planet’s soils contain enough of the subterranean fungi that sustain plant life and help regulate the climate to stretch from the Earth to the sun almost three-quarters of a billion times, a groundbreaking new study has found. Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi are networks of tubular cells called hyphae that sustain life on Earth by forming critical partnerships with more than 70% of plants. The networks, which have been forming for about 475 million years, provide nutrients and water in exchange for the carbon produced by the plants, and help to regulate the climate by drawing carbon into soils. Continue reading...