Jen Farrar
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botany-jen.bsky.social
Jen Farrar
@botany-jen.bsky.social
120 followers 130 following 43 posts
I am a botanical trainer with a deep love of the natural world and everything in it.
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Reposted by Jen Farrar
bigmeadowsearch.bsky.social
Primrose, Primula vulgaris. Leaves in basal rosette, up to 15cm, strongly net-veined, hairless above (apart from midrib) and hairy below. Leaves taper gradually to base. Petiole reddish at base
December 16, 2025 at 5:50 PM
Reposted by Jen Farrar
mattrjones.bsky.social
Carex magellanica (Tall Bog-sedge) at one of the few North Wales sites. Gosh all of the Bog Sedges really are spectacular!
@bsbibotany.bsky.social
December 17, 2025 at 9:07 AM
Reposted by Jen Farrar
bsbiscotland.bsky.social
Montane willow scrub is 1 of our most threatened habitats, with only a few 100 ha remaining throughout Scotland

Finding this nationally rare Net-leaved Willow in Perthshire was a fine reward for one of the wettest day's botanising I've ever endured! Botanical #adventcalendar Day 17
#wildflowerhour
Net-leaved Willow (Salix reticulata) patch, growing out of a Sphagnum carpet. The leaves are orbicular (rounded) and reticulated (net-veined), a dark green and shining with water on a very wet day. Female catkins rise to around 10cm, poking through the leaves - these are red, with hairy fruits stacked in a long narrow spike, and the remains of female flowers at the tip of each fruit. The catkin stalks are also red, with short hairs visible on close up. The Sphagnum below has green centres to the capitulum with brownish-red branches around - S. subnitens? A drenched Jim McIntosh, wearing a blue waterproof jacket, black waterproof trousers and a black peaked hat, stands below the Net-leaved Willow patch on a vegetated crag above him, one arm raised to point to it. Behind the ground drops away steeply, rising towards a ridge emerging from the murk of the rain.
December 17, 2025 at 6:51 AM
Reposted by Jen Farrar
mattrjones.bsky.social
Two fabulous sedges from late April on Arnside Knott.
Spring Sedge (Carex caryophyllea) and its rare red relative Carex ericetorum (Rare Spring Sedge).
The beautiful wine red glumes of ericetorum separate these really well in flower/fruit. What beauties! 😍
@bsbibotany.bsky.social
December 17, 2025 at 4:12 PM
Reposted by Jen Farrar
jeffontherock.bsky.social
A nice cluster of Cladonia #lichen spp...plus the remains of what was a cloudberry flower. #fungi #fungifriends #wildflower
Photo of a cluster of several Cladonia lichen species, including a bunch of red-topped Cladonia in the centre of the photo. There’s also the remains of what was a cloudberry flower in the top left of the pic
December 16, 2025 at 2:51 PM
Reposted by Jen Farrar
savebutterflies.bsky.social
You might spot this moth in orbit this month 🛰️

The Satellite (Eupsilia transversa) can be found in areas of woodland and scrub from October through to April.

📷: Iain H Leach, Patrick Clement
#MothMonday #TeamMoth
Brown Satellite moth resting on a lichen-covered branch Brown moth with white 'satellites' on the wings, resting on mossy bark A brown caterpillar with white stripes down its back, curled up on a leaf
December 15, 2025 at 12:00 PM
Reposted by Jen Farrar
bsbiscotland.bsky.social
Oblong Woodsia is perhaps Britain's rarest fern, and Day 16's species for my botanical #adventcalendar

It suffered big declines due to Victorian collecting, and the national population now consists of <200 individuals with little evidence of recruitment, despite conservation actions
Oblond Woodsia (Woodsia ilvensis), a small delicate fern growing in large blocky scree. The clump consists of 11 or so fronds, none longer than 15 cm, more or less bipinnate, with scales present right the way up the rachis (midrib). The clump is growing through a patch of Woolly Fringe-moss (Racomitrium lanuginosum), a pleurocarpous moss with white hair points on the ends of its leaves. Around the fern are the angular blocks of scree, coveredin in grey, white, orange and green crustose lichens. A view of the underside of one of the Oblong Woodsia fronds, turned over by a male hand and held between thumb and forefinger to reveal the hairy underside of the blade, the scaly and hairy rachis, and immature sori, still greenish-white and forming
December 16, 2025 at 7:59 AM
Reposted by Jen Farrar
bsbiscotland.bsky.social
Day 15 of my botanical #adventcalendar - time for Black Alpine-sedge! If I could I'd fill the calendar with sedges, but my shaky phone-pics aren't good enough 😂

This was a newly discovered population in the Grey Corries - always an exciting plant to find, and very distinctive #wildflowerhour
Black Alpine-sedge (Carex atrata) - a single, grey-green flowering stem curving leftwards in the foreground, its triangular stem rising to a heavy infloresence of four black, club-shaped spikes, all facing left and ranked on top of each other at the end of a strong but narrow pedicel. The leaf-like bract is yellowing, and curves over the top of the infloresence, extending beyond it. The background consists of a varied mix of pink-grey rocks with lichens, sedges and grasses, bryophytes and the green, rugose leaves of Alpine Saw-wort (Saussurea alpina)
December 15, 2025 at 8:41 AM
Reposted by Jen Farrar
bigmeadowsearch.bsky.social
Ground-ivy, Glechoma hederacea. Trailing, stoloniferous, perennial to 30cm. Stems root at lower nodes. Channelled petiole. Lvs hairy, dark green, fetid smell, reniform (kidney shape), pitted with glands below. Crenate leaf margin with 6-10 teeth. Petiole & stem retrorsely hairy.
December 15, 2025 at 6:00 PM
Reposted by Jen Farrar
bigmeadowsearch.bsky.social
Heath Speedwell, Veronica officinalis. Roots at nodes. Septate hairy, opposite leaves. 5-12 teeth per leaf side. Leaves hairy both sides.
December 14, 2025 at 7:52 AM
Reposted by Jen Farrar
bigmeadowsearch.bsky.social
It’s the oft overlooked and under appreciated Dandelion from me for #wildflowerhour
429 pollinator interactions from 96 different species are listed on the Database of Pollinator Interactions (DoPI) for Dandelion
sussex.ac.uk/lifesci/ebe/do…
December 14, 2025 at 8:08 PM
Reposted by Jen Farrar
bigmeadowsearch.bsky.social
Maidenhair Spleenwort, Asplenium trichomanes. Evergreen. Wiry, dark brown-purple rachis. Simply pinnate. Pinnae up to 8mm, rectangular with slight serrations. Linear sori. 3 subspecies.
December 12, 2025 at 5:55 PM
Reposted by Jen Farrar
sarahwatts.bsky.social
Excited to be speaking at #BES2025 next week on my PhD research also just ACCEPTED FOR PUBLICATION: "Thinking outside the bog: planting Dwarf Birch for mountain woodland restoration beyond habitat refugia constrained by overgrazing" Implications for practice, policy & deer management.
@stir.ac.uk
December 12, 2025 at 10:52 AM
Reposted by Jen Farrar
bitheolaidhe.bsky.social
Are you interested in learning more about identifying plant pathogens in the wild? Come along to my webinar at 7pm on the 27th of January!
bsbi.org/take-part/ev...

#FungiFriends #WildPlantDisease
December 11, 2025 at 3:38 PM
Reposted by Jen Farrar
bsbiscotland.bsky.social
Every so often I venture south of the border, and Day 11 of my botanical #adventcalendar is the amazing Large-flowered Butterwort - native to SW Ireland, but occasionally introduced in England, including this population in Edale
Like @bsbibotany.bsky.social, I couldn't stop grinning!
#wildflowerhour
The insectivorous Large-flowered Butterwort (Pinguicula grandiflora), growing on the side of an upland stream. Its five-petalled, bright purple flowers are striking, with three broad lower petals and two narrower upper petals, and a central white area with purple streaks leading into the corolla tube. Each stem has a single flower, and arises from a basal rosette of yellow-green, fleshy leaves, inrolled at the margins, and covered in glandular hairs that secrete a sticky mucilage to catch and digest their insect prey. In the photo, four flowers and eight rosettes are shown, growing out of a wall of bryophytes, including thalloid liverworts, with some sedge and grass leaves and stems also present A very happy lady stands at the edge of an upland stream, admiring a dense patch of Large-flowered Butterwort growing on the right-hand wall of the stream gorge. The patch is a mass of purple flowers and yellow-green basal rosettes. To her left, the stream runs gently along a flatter section, with the blue sky reflected in the water, and behind the gorge turns, escaping the shade and into bright sunlight which illuminates the heath and bracken covered slope above.
December 11, 2025 at 9:03 AM
Reposted by Jen Farrar
duncanwestbury.bsky.social
Welcome to my new podcast “Meadow Matters”. The first episode is all about Yellow Rattle.

rss.com/podcasts/mea...
Meadow Matters | Podcast on RSS.com
This podcast explores the creation, restoration, and management of species-rich meadows and how ultimately, they not only support wildlife, but enable us to produce food in a more sustainable way.
rss.com
December 11, 2025 at 8:24 PM
Reposted by Jen Farrar
bigmeadowsearch.bsky.social
Hard-fern, Blechnum spicant. Two types of leaves. Fertile (F) fronds arise from centre of plant & grow up to 75cm. Pinnae are narrow and widely spaced. Their underside have brown linear spore bearing sori. Sterile (S) leaves up to 60cm, glossy with close together, linear pinnae
December 11, 2025 at 6:26 PM
Reposted by Jen Farrar
bigmeadowsearch.bsky.social
Hart’s-tongue, Asplenium scolopendrium. Shiny. Strap shaped leaves up to 6cm wide with cordate base and distinct midrib. Each vein ends in submarginal hydathode. Petiole up to 30cm and scaly
December 10, 2025 at 6:24 PM
Reposted by Jen Farrar
bigmeadowsearch.bsky.social
White Clover, Trifolium repens. Very variable. Up to 50cm. Roots at the nodes and forms mats. Leaves on long stalks. Leaflets up to 30mm, finely toothed with 5-20 teeth per side. Usually with pale chevron near the base.
December 9, 2025 at 6:13 PM
Reposted by Jen Farrar
alxnelson.bsky.social
Favorite images from 2025, Day 8: A closeup of an eye belonging to a female anhinga during the breeding season, which is when the eyes themselves turn dark red with a bright orange ring, surrounded by a green and blue eyering and lore. #birds
December 8, 2025 at 3:29 PM
Reposted by Jen Farrar
ipbes.net
Fungi are among the most important and beautiful soil organisms.

🍄 Explore the fungal tree of life, with an emphasis on the macroscopic diversity of fungi.

📷 Laszlo G. Nagy
An infographic titled “Fungal Tree of Life” depicting a diverse array of fungi with accompanying names and illustrations
December 8, 2025 at 10:00 AM
Reposted by Jen Farrar
bigmeadowsearch.bsky.social
Red Clover, Trifolium pratense. Leaves hairy below and often above. 3-leaflets each up to 30mm long and often with white chevron. Petiole variable: hairy-hairless.
December 8, 2025 at 6:01 PM
Reposted by Jen Farrar
bigmeadowsearch.bsky.social
I mentioned ‘elastic stele’ in my earlier post. Below is definition & video to demonstrate (Video shows it on Bog Stitchwort).
Stele: the central core of the stem containing the vascular system (xylem and phloem).
From the Greek ‘stele’ for pillar.
December 6, 2025 at 6:27 PM
Reposted by Jen Farrar
bigmeadowsearch.bsky.social
Nipplewort, Lapsana communis. Basal rosette: Hairy, stalked, toothed leaves up to 15cm long. Large terminal leaf lobe and 1-3 pairs of smaller lateral lobes
December 5, 2025 at 6:00 PM
Reposted by Jen Farrar
bigmeadowsearch.bsky.social
Stuck for Christmas gift ideas…. how about a Big Meadow Search book? 🤔😉🤓
2 volumes compiled from the project’s social media posts. Bk: 1 covers grassland indicator species with a range of associated species whilst Bk 2 has >200 different species, again with associated species
December 4, 2025 at 6:03 PM