Rare UK flower, lady's-slipper orchid, is found in the wild

Western Telegraph

04-06-2025

The lady's slipper orchid came close to vanishing from the English countryside.
Now, work by the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust to reintroduce plants into suitable habitats has seen it found again.
The trust said the discovery of the new plant in the wild was a 'truly thrilling moment'.
Poisonous Plants Found in the UK
Rare UK flower lady's-slipper orchid is found in the wild
The lady's-slipper orchid was believed to be extinct in the UK by the early 20th century, due to over-collection by plant hunters and the loss of its habitat.
However, a single plant was found in a remote location in the Yorkshire Dales in 1930, which prompted round-the-clock protection by decades of dedicated volunteers.
Efforts to boost the orchid's population began in the 1990s and plants were reintroduced to locations in the north of England, with the location kept secret to avoid theft.
The project, since 2023, has been led by Yorkshire Wildlife Trust and supported by partners Natural England, Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, the National Trust, Plantlife and the Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland (BSBI).
Two years ago, Yorkshire Wildlife Trust secured a grant from Natural England's species recovery programme to ramp up the work protecting the habitat, rearing many new orchids and reintroducing plants into suitable habitat.
Reintroductions were carried out at three new sites in Yorkshire and several hundred new orchids were produced to be planted out in future years.
In June last year, an orchid which had grown naturally at one of the reintroduction sites was discovered.
Jono Leadley, managing the project on behalf of Yorkshire Wildlife Trust, said the discovery of the new plant in the wild was a 'truly thrilling moment'.
He said: 'To see a healthy population of lady's-slipper orchids back in their native area that are now reproducing themselves gives us real hope for the future."
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Kevin Walker, of BSBI, added: 'The discovery of this naturally regenerating seedling represents a significant turning point for one of our rarest and most threatened plants, and is testament to the dedication of hundreds of volunteers and enthusiasts who have carefully nurtured it back into the wild.
'It provides evidence that this beautiful plant can, with a bit of help from us, re-establish itself across its former range.'
What are the rarest flowers in the UK?
According to the Woodland Trust, the lady's-slipper orchid is among the rarest flowers in the UK.
It said the orchid is "one of the most endangered plants in the UK".
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Others include the ghost orchid, one-flowered wintergreen, twinflower and crested cow-wheat.
Extinct plants in the UK include the lamb's succory, last recorded in Oxfordshire in 1971, the downy hemp nettle, not seen since 1975, and the davall's sedge, which left the UK in 1852.
The Woodland Trust says development, climate change, and changes in land use put rare plants at risk of extinction.