Prof. Jeff Ollerton – ecological scientist and author

One of the things that has fascinated me throughout my career is the extraordinary diversity of ways in which flowering plants interact with their animal visitors.

Back in the summer, Karin and I were interviewed, one after the other, by garden designer and podcaster Mykal Hoare for his The Gardener’s Lodge podcast.

Some scientific questions have a habit of following you around for much of your career.

It’s sometimes easy to forget quite how much of the living world depends upon insects.

Back in 2022 I wrote about a project in which I’d been involved with colleagues at the Natural History Museum, Imperial College London and several regional museums.

One of the things I love about working on the milkweed and dogbane family (Apocynaceae) is that it has an apparently inexhaustible capacity to produce strange and wonderful interactions with animals.

Autumn’s here, from branch to root, With constant rain and falling fruit Winter cold and thinking slow Our warming hearth is TV’s glow Spring takes comfort in the land’s exhale It’s breathing again between the hail Summer’s cheery azure skies Are scanned…

Bedfordshire Natural History Society (BNHS) has invited me to give a talk on the theme of “Pollinator Conservation: Threats and Opportunities” at Maulden Village Hall (MK45 2DP) on Tuesday 15th September.

Back in January I wrote a post entitled Pollination as a matter of national security, prompted by the UK Government’s rather extraordinary publication of this report: Global biodiversity loss, ecosystem collapse and national security: a national security…

There is too much science.

In my book Birds & Flowers, I included a chapter called “The curious case of Europe”.

NOTE FROM JEFF: This press release came out at the start of the week and I am involved in two of the EU-funded projects that are mentioned, Butterfly and ProPollSoil, and I’m a co-author of the White Paper.

Sometimes, science does not go the way you plan.

Recently, I made a comment over on Steve Heard’s Scientist Sees Squirrel blog: I have never published a paper that’s not been improved, to some degree, by peer review, and broadly the system works.

One of the few positive things to come out of the COVID lockdowns was the unexpected opportunity to look much more closely at the nature right outside our doors.

This year – 2026 – marks the 40th anniversary of my first publication.

I’d like to tell you about a dream that I had last night.