Common sea-lavender
Common sea-lavender can be found around our coasts on mudflats, creek banks and saltmarshes. Despite its name, its not a lavender at all, so doesn’t smell like one.
Common sea-lavender can be found around our coasts on mudflats, creek banks and saltmarshes. Despite its name, its not a lavender at all, so doesn’t smell like one.
Forming mats of straight, bright green stems, Common spike-rush does, indeed, look like lots of tightly clustered 'spikes' near the water's edge of our wetland habitats.
The Common fragrant-orchid lives up to its name: it produces a sweet, orangey smell that is very strong in the evening. Look for its densely packed, pink flower spikes on chalk grasslands in…
The common spotted-orchid is the easiest of all our orchids to see: sometimes, so many flowers appear together that they create a pale pink carpet in our woodlands, old quarries, dunes and marshes…
Living up to its name the Common blue damselfly is both very common and very blue. It regularly visits gardens - try digging a wildlife-friendly pond to attract damselflies and dragonflies.
Our most familiar wild violet, the Common dog-violet can be spotted in a range of habitats from woodland to grassland, hedgerows to pastures. Its pansy-like, purple flowers appear from April to…
The diminutive common eyelash fungus can be found on wet wood and humous-rich damp soil, often by streams or in wet places. Its orange cup is fringed with tiny, black hairs, providing its common…
These energetic dolphins are often spotted in large groups which will approach boats, bowriding and leaping alongside. At sea, they can form superpods - huge groups made up of thousands of…
If you’ve ever been rockpooling, you’ve probably seen a limpet or two! Their cone-shaped shells clamp onto rocks until the tide comes in, at which point they become active. Limpets move around…
Cuttlefish are related to squids and octopuses – a group of molluscs known as cephalopods. You may have seen the chalky internal shell, called a cuttlebone washed up on beaches around the UK.…
This large starfish looks just like the sun, with 10-12 arms spreading outwards like rays.
This large brittlestar can be found in rockpools around much of the UK, but be gentle - its arms are very brittle and will break off if disturbed.