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Our 10 most threatened woodland plants

One in six of our woodland flowers is threatened with extinction. Below are ten plants we believe most at risk, all of which are listed as either Critically Endangered or Endangered on the UK Red Data List.

1. Spreading bellflower

Campanula patula

Delicate with large, blue, star-like flowers, and with petals that spread widely, hence the name. In England, occurs mainly in the West Midlands (Herefordshire, Gloucestershire, Worcestershire), typically on sunny banks and the sides of tracks, lanes or roads, especially in open woodland or on woodland edges. Prefers dry, well-drained, fairly infertile sandy or gravelly soils.

Reasons for decline: Cessation of coppicing and other disturbance in woodland, and increased use of herbicides on roads and rail verges.

Requirements to do well: Disturbance and coppicing to create woodland glades.

2. Red helleborine

Cephalanthera rubra

A beautiful orchid which grows only in beech woods on calcareous soils and in deep shade. Very rare, with only a few southern England sites with a total of less than 50 plants remaining, although it once grew at 15 sites. Grows to around 65cm in height and has 9-10 deep pink flowers.

Reasons for decline: Has always been rare, but increased rarity possibly due to the rarity of its pollinators and the right habitat to support those pollinators.

Requirements to do well: Removal of shrubs and trees to create more open habitat, but not too open – this orchid needs the right, subtle management.

3. Wood calamint

Clinopodium menthifolium

A rare perennial herb with pink or purplish-pink flowers, growing on woodland edges and scrub at a single dry chalk valley on the Isle of Wight. The flowers are arranged in whorls on long spike stems, and the dark green leaves give off a minty smell when crushed.

Reasons for decline: Was always restricted to a single site, but was once much more abundant there – lack of coppicing and overgrowth by nettles and other smothering plants has led to its decline.

Requirements to do well: Coppicing and clearance of invasive ground cover.

4. Green hound’s-tongue

Cynoglossum germanicum

A short-lived herb of lowland deciduous woodland glades or edges, sometimes also found in hedgebanks.

Reasons for decline: Unclear, and difficult to record as some populations seem to come and go, although it needs glade conditions and populations in Surrey did well after the great storm of 1987 opened up its habitats.

Requirements to do well: Disturbance and opening up of tree canopies.

5. Ghost orchid

Epipogium aphyllum

A pale orchid, classified as extinct until a single plant was rediscovered in a Herefordshire wood in 2009. It will now be reclassified as Critically Endangered. Usually grows in deep leaf litter although the recent rediscovery was only a small 5cm high.

Reasons for decline: Loss of beech wood habitat; always quite rare.

Requirements to do well: Maintaining the right habitat.

6. Small cow-wheat

Melampyrum sylvaticum

A small annual plant with deep-yellow flowers, found in broadleaved, humid, ravine-type woodlands, where it is semi-parasitic on a wide range of plants. Its large seeds that have poor dispersal ability and are susceptible to predation.

Reasons for decline: Afforestation, nutrient enrichment and grazing and trampling by livestock.

Requirements to do well: Maintaining open tree canopies, but not too open as humid environment is necessary, and controlling aggressive ground flora.

7. Yellow bird’s-nest

Monotropa hypopitus and two sub-species

A saprophytic perennial herb that grows in leaf litter in shaded woodlands, especially beech and hazel. The whole plant is a yellowy-brown colour

Reasons for decline: Many sites lost before 1930 but more declines in more recent years, possibly due to changes in woodland management, overgrazing or habitat fragmentation.

Requirements to do well: Careful monitoring to ensure adequate habitat and if necessary preventing overgrazing of sites.

8. Lady orchid

Orchis purpurea

Occurs in short grassland, woodland edges and sometimes in open woodland, such as at Plantlife’s Ranscombe Farm Reserve in Kent. It is now very rare in the UK. Favours alkaline or neutral soils. Can grow up to 80 cm tall and occasionally larger, and the stunning flower spikes may contain up to 200 individual flowers of dappled purple.

Reasons for decline: Damage by slugs and deer overgrazing the ground flora, particularly muntjac, may affect lady orchid, and closing in of the woodland canopy may provide too much shade. Illegal picking and uprooting is also a risk.

Requirements to do well: Maintaining open conditions in the woodland, and monitoring deer grazing.

9. Spiked rampion

Phyteuma spicatum

A member of the bellflower family with unusual creamy-white spikes. According to the fairytale, spiked rampion was the plant Rapunzel stole and as a result was locked in her tower – in mainland Europe, it is known as ‘white Rapunzel’. Native only to East Sussex in the UK, currently present at only eight sites (garden escapes have occurred elsewhere in the UK). Grows along the shady edges of paths and rides in woodlands, and in the hedge banks of roadside verges.

Reasons for decline: Shading out of habitat through lack of woodland management.

Requirements to do well: Coppicing to create glades in woodlands on a cycle of active management.

10. Wilmott’s whitebeam

Sorbus wilmottiana

Small tree with red fruits occurring only on steep, rocky limestone slopes in the Avon Gorge and nowhere else. Approx 40 trees remain, along with other rare Sorbus species in the Gorge.

Reasons for decline: Has always been rare, loss of habitat of open rocky slopes is a threat; overgrazing threatens regeneration.

Requirements to do well: Management or fencing out of livestock.