A good luck charm for travellers, Germander speedwell can be seen along roadsides, grassy lanes and hedgerows. Look for clumps of bright blue flowers.

In May, our hedgerows and woodland edges burst into life as midland hawthorn erupts with masses of pinky-white blossom. During the autumn, red fruits known as 'haws' appear.

The tiny, grey-brown house mouse is one of our most successful mammals. It thrives around buildings but is less likely to be found in our houses these days due to better construction.

Golden banks of common rock-rose make a spectacular sight on our chalk and limestone grasslands in summer. A creeping shrub, it is good for bees, moths and butterflies.

One of the prettiest hardy ferns, the lady fern is delicate and lacy, with ladder-like foliage. It makes a good garden fern, providing attractive cover for wildlife.

The London plane tree is, as its name suggests, a familiar sight along the roadsides and in the parks of London. An introduced and widely planted species, it is tough enough to put up with city…

A strikingly beautiful fish, it is not hard to see where the ‘red’ mullet gets its name from!

The Atlantic salmon spends most of its life at sea, but makes an epic journey back to the river or stream in which it hatched to spawn. Look out for it in freshwater rivers in the north and west…

The red admiral is an unmistakable garden visitor. This black-and-red beauty may be seen feeding on flowers on warm days all year-round. Adults are mostly migrants, but some do hibernate here.

At nearly 7 cm long (including the female's long ovipositor), the great green bush-cricket certainly lives up to its name! It can be found in grassland, scrub and woodland rides in Southern…