Pushing its way up through the cracks in pavements, the straw-coloured flower spikes of greater plantain or 'broadleaf plantain' are a familiar sight. This 'weed' also pops up…

A very rare ant, once found on heathland across southern England but now restricted to Scotland and Devon. It constructs distinctive thatched nests in open areas at the edges of scrub, and forages…

The small, shaggy-furred whiskered bat roosts in all sorts of houses, old or modern. It is similar to the Brandt's bat and they often roost together, but in separate colonies. It feeds along…

The pungent, rotten smell of Black Horehound makes this medium-sized plant of waste ground and roadside verges stand out from the crowd.

The St Mark's fly is small, black and shiny. It is so-called because it emerges around St Mark's Day, April 25th. Large numbers of adults can be found in woodland edges, hedgerows,…

Fat hen is a persistent 'weed' of fields and gardens, verges and hedgerows. But, like many of our weed species, it is a good food source for birds and insects.

A scrambling plant, Meadow vetchling has yellow flowers. It is a member of the pea family and can be seen on rough grassland, waste ground and roadside verges.

Also known as 'Scorpion-grass' because of the curved 'tail' at the end of its stems, Water forget-me-not is a distinctive plant of damp habitats. Over summer, it produces…

Familiar as the bristly plant that easily hooks on to our clothing as we walk through the countryside or do the gardening, cleavers uses its hooks to help it climb and to disperse its seeds.

Found in ponds and marshes, the fragile look of the Common water-measurer belies its fierce nature. A predator of small insects, it uses the vibrations of the water's surface to locate its…

Greater burdock is familiar to us as the sticky plant that children delight in, frequently throwing the burs at each other. It actually uses these hooked seed heads to help disperse its seeds.