Erlend Haarberg / Lady's-slipper orchid (Cypripedium calceolus) flowers, Junkerdalsura, Junkerdalen valley, Nordland, Norway, June

Kerstin Hinze / Chives in flower (Allium schoenoprasum) Lower Saxony, Germany

Kerstin Hinze / Giant onion in flower (Allium giganteum), cultivated in Botanical Garden Brunswick, Germany

Adrian Davies / Branched bur-reed (Sparganium erectum) flowering, County Meath, Republic of Ireland, July

Alex Mustard / Portrait of a Common / Short Snouted Seahorse (Hippocampus hippocampus) in seagrass. Isola La Maddelena, Sardinia, Italy, Mediterranean Sea, August.

Alex Mustard / A Spiny Seahorse (Hippocampus guttulatus) in a mussel bed (Mytilus edulis). Thau Lagoon, Montpellier, France, September.

David Woodfall / Meadow saffron / Autumn crocus (Colchicum autumnale). Romania, October 2010

Kerstin Hinze / Mature fruiting bodies of Slime mould (Leocarpus fragilis) Myxomycete, Sardinia, Italy

John Cancalosi / Fossilised Fern (Neuropteris sp.), Upper Carboniferous, Piesberg, Osnabruck, Germany

Bernard Castelein / Sawfly orchid {Ophrys tenthredinifera} Karen peninsula, Turkey

Bernard Castelein / Woodland grasshopper (Omocestus rufipes) France

John Cancalosi / Barbary ape {Macaca sylvanus} sitting on tourist telescope, Gibraltar