Epipactis youngiana Young’s Helleborine

Epipactis youngiana
©Tim Rich/Plantlife

A wild orchid with small, pink and green flowers and oval leaves. It is a woodland plant, and is usually found on heavy soils and spoil heaps of old mines as it can cope with heavy metals in the ground.

It is restricted now to four sites in lanarkshire (Scotland), but has always been rare. It is thought to have evolved as separate species fairly recently, and was first described in 1978; it has not been found anywhere else in the world.

The cause for loss of some recent groups has been destruction or removal of the spoil heaps for other uses, and the thickening of the woodland over the plant through lack of management.

It is protected under Schedule 8 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981.