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After decades of brilliant conservation work, the rare and eye-catching Fen Orchid is officially no longer considered threatened in Great Britain.
One of Britain’s most endangered orchids has been brought back from the brink of extinction. The rare Fen Orchid is making a comeback and is no longer considered threatened, according to the new GB Red List.
This great achievement is a result of decades of painstaking conservation work. Overtime, we’ve learnt more about the plant’s ecology, how to safeguard existing plants and then how to boost its numbers.
Tim Pankhurst, former Conservation Manager at Plantlife has dedicated his life’s work to protecting Fen Orchids. For captions watch on YouTube.
There are now over 10,000 individual plants in Britain, with 7 locations in England and 3 in Wales. Fen Orchid was previously classed as Endangered, but thanks to conservation work it is now classed as ‘Near Threatened’ according to the Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland (BSBI)’s new GB Red List.
The historic downgrading in threat status of Fen Orchid is thought to mark one of only a handful of plants that have been inched off the GB Red List due to conservation action since the system was introduced in 1977.
Fen Orchids Liparis loeselii aren’t just striking, they’re also very rare – only flowering fleetingly in a precious few fens and sand dunes.
Interestingly, this wildflower is different to many others because it doesn’t usually grow in soil. Instead, Fen Orchids grow on clumps of moss or on sedge tussocks in wet areas called fens. They are dependent on the unique, open conditions of the fenland, a naturally marshy area.
It can also be a tricky wildflower to spot as it is small and inconspicuous. Its leaves wrap around the bottom of the single stem, which supports several yellowish-green flowers towards the top of the plant.
Learn more about the Fen Orchid.
The main reason that Fen Orchid numbers have declined is habitat loss – the abandonment and drainage of the fens. Orchid enthusiasts collecting plants have also played a part.
By 2010, there were just 3 locations in East Anglia and 1 dune site in Kenfig, Wales where Fen Orchids were reported growing. There were no more than 1,000 plants in total.
There were fears this plant would entirely disappear from the UK, especially as it is such a sensitive species that requires particular conditions.
Tim Pankhurst, former Conservation Manager at Plantlife said: “Playing a leading role in reducing the threat status of such a beautiful yet mercurial orchid is a once in a lifetime opportunity for a botanist and one I will always treasure. As we face the enormous challenges of climate and biodiversity loss, this provides a moment of genuine hope for the future and is testament to what dedicated partnership conservation work delivered consistently over many decades can deliver.”
Since 2008, we’ve led efforts to rescue this plant through a multi-pronged conservation strategy, alongside partners. This wouldn’t have been possible without the decades of work by the Wildlife Trusts caring for the remaining plants and restoring former sites so they could be suitable for Fen Orchids. This work made the reintroductions of Fen Orchids possible.
Image credit: Cambridge University Botanic Garden
Peter Atkinson, Plants Records Officer at Cambridge University Botanic Garden, said: “At Cambridge University Botanic Garden, we’ve been investigating the life cycle of the Fen Orchid and successfully maintaining an ex-situ collection of plants for over a decade. Over this time, our field observations have deepened our understanding of the species, directly informing improved management of existing sites and helping wild populations increase from a few hundred to several thousand.
“We’re now seeing strong, sustainable populations re-establishing in the wild – a clear sign that this kind of long-term, collaborative conservation really does work.”
The threat status of Fen Orchid has reduced, but that doesn’t mean work is complete. This achievement can only be held by continuing conservation work, including sites continuing to be managed properly and future translocations of the plant.
Funders and partners involved in the English Fen Orchid Conservation Strategy include Norfolk Wildlife Trust, Suffolk Wildlife Trust, RSPB, Natural England, Butterfly Conservation, Broads Authority, Norfolk County Council, Cambridge University Botanic Garden, Royal Botanic Gardens and Kew. Natural Resources Wales and Bridgend Council have spearheaded work in Wales.
Chris Jones, the Warden of Kenfig National Nature Reserve, recently found the very rare fungus, during a routine survey.
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A journey to return one of the UK’s rarest wildflowers to the wild has made a major step to success.
The iconic orchid, Lady’s-slipper, was believed to have been driven to extinction in the UK by the early part of the 20th century as a result of over-collecting and habitat loss.
However, in 1930 a single plant was discovered growing in a remote part of the Yorkshire Dales. The location was kept secret for decades, during which time volunteers frequently checked on the plant to make sure it wasn’t dug up and stolen.
A reintroduction programme was planned with the ambition of reinstating self-sustaining populations of the orchid in the wild. Now, decades of work have finally paid off.
Last summer, the first new naturally occurring Lady’s-slipper Cypripedium calceolus plant was discovered in the wild for almost 100 years. The team who discovered the plant included Plantlife, Yorkshire Wildlife Trust, Natural England, the Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland (BSBI) and Chester Zoo.
This incredible moment for plant conservation was decades in the making.
Some 2 years ago, Yorkshire Wildlife Trust, in partnership with Plantlife, Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, BSBI and the National Trust received a grant from Natural England’s Species Recovery Programme to continue and extend the work to recover Lady’s-slipper.
This work involved protecting the habitat of the remaining wild Lady’s-slipper plant, rearing lots of new orchid seedlings and planting out orchids into former haunts.
Then last June, the team were delighted to discover an entirely new plant at one of the reintroduction sites. This means the orchids that were planted out have managed to cross pollinate and set seed,, which then successfully germinated and established in the wild.
Lady’s-slipper, like other orchids, has tiny seeds and has long proven difficult to cultivate from seed. It took many years to refine the technique for hand pollination, discover the best time for seed capsule collection, germinate the hand-collected seeds and successfully grow-on mature individuals that were strong enough to be planted out in the wild.
Over the years, Kew has led the development of propagation techniques for the orchid. The young plants were then transferred to the hands of volunteer orchid-specialists, managed by the National Trust, who nurtured the plants for several years before they were ready to be planted out.
Trials have shown that larger plants – which are more rapidly able to get their roots down into rocky ground – grow better in the wild then smaller ones. This means, many of plants which were planted out in 2024 and 2025 were over 10 years old!
Together with Yorkshire Wildlife Trust, BSBI, Natural England and Kew, we identified suitable sites for planting out orchids back into the wild.
Lady’s-slipper are the crowning glory of Britain’s wildflowers – one of the rarest and most impressive. Its rescue from the brink is one of the UK’s most fascinating lost and found stories, and a hopeful symbol of what can be regained when partners work together to carefully reintroduce plants back into the wild.
The distribution of Lady’s-slipper used to once stretch from Cumbria to Derbyshire. But as a result of over-collecting and habitat loss, the plant was believed extinct in the UK by the early part of the 20th century.
During the Victorian era it fell victim to the orchid hunting craze known as ‘orchidelirium’. Explorers would be sent off by wealthy collectors with the mission of finding new species of the delicate and beautiful orchids. Sadly, this led to Lady’s-slipper’s decline.
Find out more about the Lady’s-slipper including how and where to spot it.
Despite this wonderful step to success, there is still work to be done. The project team will continue their work to help the Lady’s-slipper and it’s hoped that if funding is secured more self-sustaining populations of the plant will be created.
If you would like the chance to see Lady’s-slipper, you can visit Kilnsey Park near Grassington in the Yorkshire Dales in late May and early June. More information here (www.kilnseypark.co.uk).
This year Plantlife has secured more funds from Natural England’s Species Recovery Programme to monitor previous reintroductions and explore the environmental and habitat factors which correlate with various measures of success. So that future reintroductions and reinforcements can be targeted to locations that are most likely to successfully support self-sustaining populations.
Photo credits: Kevin Walker and Dr Elizabeth Cooke
A journey to return one of the UK's rarest wildflowers to the wild has made a major step to success.
Sun, sand, sea and wildflowers – why not add finding flowers to your list of beach time activities this summer.
How Plantlife is moving one of the most endangered wildflowers in Europe off the Red Data list for Great Britain.
The Fen Orchid Liparis loeselii, is one of the most endangered wildflowers in Europe, but successful conservation efforts have given hope for its survival. The orchid is only found in two areas of the UK:
We believe that the orchid could finally be removed from the Red Lists for both England and Great Britain.
After a decade of research and partnership work, the orchid has been re-discovered at former sites in the Broads, and the total population has estimated to have risen to over 15,000 plants through proper management.
The orchid has also been reintroduced to its former sites in Suffolk, and the signs are encouraging that it will become established in some of its old homes.
In South Wales, the conservation effort to restore the fragile dune habitat at Kenfig and to rediscover the plant at former dune locations.
At Kenfig numbers had dropped from a conservative 21,000 at the end of the 1980s to just 400 when conservation work began.
After almost 10 years of work, over 4000 Fen Orchids have been counted, more than double the highest number seen in the last two decades.
The orchids once grew at eight dune sites along the south Wales coast, but a lack of active management led to their disappearance. The success at Kenfig gives hope for other dune sites like Whiteford and Pembrey, the former of which the plant has recently been re-found after searching.
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Our Welsh reserves are home to a huge variety of wildflowers, but both are nationally renowned for their Butterfly Orchid populations.
Meg Griffiths shares how and why we count the 2 types of Butterfly Orchid species at our nature reserves in Wales, and how it will protect these rare plants for the future.
We are well and truly into summer, and we’ve already witnessed a spectacular succession of wild plants flowering over the last few months. Now that we’ve waved goodbye to the anemones and hawthorn is beginning to fade, we’re welcoming the orchids.
Butterfly orchids are delicate, elegant plants, with a single floral spike bearing many pale, creamy green flowers. Each flower resembles a tiny moth (or butterfly) in flight, with its wings outstretched. They are sweetly scented and can be found growing in a diverse range of habitats, from moors and bogs to woodlands, but most commonly they are found in undisturbed grasslands and meadows.
There are two species, Greater Butterfly Orchid Platanthera chlorantha and Lesser Butterfly Orchid Platanthera bifolia. The differences between them takes an expert eye to spot, and are to do with the angle between the pollen bearing organs of the plant (the pollinia).
Both species are pollinated by moths. At night, the first signal a moth will pick up on is the fragrance of the orchid – once closer the pale flowers will stand out against the darkness.
Unfortunately, both species are experiencing dramatic declines nationally. Greater butterfly orchid is faring the better of the two but is still classed as Near Threatened in the UK. Lesser butterfly orchid has been assessed as Vulnerable on the UK Vascular Plant Red List and has disappeared from over half of its previous range in the last 50 years.
Declines across both species are because of changes in agricultural grassland management – these species need consistent management over a long time to thrive. Damaging land use change could include too much (or too little) grazing, drainage of fields, and even addition of chemical fertilisers. Orchids rely on a soil fungus to survive, and agricultural chemicals can kill off this unseen life support network.
Thankfully, as their habitats are safe and protected within our reserves, these species are still thriving. To be sure of this, every year we participate in the butterfly orchid count to monitor how our populations of these beautiful plants are faring.
This year’s butterfly orchid numbers for Plantlife’s reserve in North Wales, Caeau-Tan-y-Bwlch. This reserve is managed by the North Wales Wildlife Trust who we are so grateful to for all their hard and effective work.
This year’s butterfly orchid numbers for Plantlife’s reserve near Lampeter, Cae-Blaen-Dyffryn.
Monitoring how they are faring is an important part of understanding our reserves and making good management choices. Both our Welsh nature reserves are Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI), and both list the Butterfly Orchids as a notified feature- so there is a legal duty to ensure the populations remain in good condition
We want to be able to demonstrate that the way we are managing land is benefitting them, and counting the number of orchids each year, and gathering supporting habitat information, can help us adjust our site management when we need to. This enables us to give the orchids the best possible chance they have going forwards.
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Sarah Shuttleworth
In the UK we have over 45 species of orchid – which might be more than you thought!
Learn more about this wild and wonderful family of plants with Plantlife wildflower expert Sarah Shuttleworth.
Orchids are part of the largest and most highly evolved family of flowering plants on earth. They are usually highly specialised to a specific habitat, with equally specialised relationships with pollinators, and fungi which live in the soil.
The majority of species reproduce via tiny seeds that are known as ‘dust seeds’ which need perfect conditions to germinate – with some species even relying on specific types of fungi in the soil for them to grow. This means that conditions in the soil and habitat need to be exactly right for an orchid species to thrive, hence why we don’t encounter them all the time.
One UK orchid has gained huge notoriety for its rarity, the Ghost Orchid Epipogium aphyllum. This species is currently regarded as extinct but with hopes for its re-discovery. Occurring in Beech woodlands in deep leaf litter where gets its energy from decaying matter, it’s appropriately named for its pinkish white ghostly appearance rising from dead leaves.
Although orchids are not the most common plant you will find, they do occur in a huge variety of habitats. Traditional hay meadows and pastures can host several species, the most common of these are
Many orchids also specialise in woodlands, for example Early Purple Orchid Orchis mascula, Helleborines Epipactus sp and Bird’s-nest Orchid Neottia nidus-avis (pictured), a fascinating yellow orchid without any chlorophyll that depends entirely on getting its food from decaying material in the leaf litter. There are also species that grow in fens and bogs, pine forests, heathlands and dunes.
The majority of the time due to the specific requirements for growth, orchids tend to be associated with long established habitats, that haven’t had lots of disturbance. Therefore, a nature reserve can often be a useful place to look.
The best time of year to look for orchids tends to be late spring and early summer. Quite a few UK orchids have spotted leaves, making them even more distinctive and easy to spot.
They are perennial plants, and in the UK are formed of a spike of flowers on a single stem. They all share a similar flower structure, despite the huge variety in their appearance. There are 3 sepals (outer protective petal-like parts) and 3 main petals, with one that usually forms a lower lip known as the labellum. This lip is often the largest and most distinctive ‘petal’ structure of the flower.
Often their intricate design and some species astonishing mimicry to tempt pollinators is one of the most intriguing features of these plants. With Bee and Fly Orchids imitating these insects to attract them to land on the flower, mistaking them for a potential mate, and thereby pollinating the flower.
The key features of orchids for identification other than habitat, are the leaves (shape and markings) and the lower lip of the flower (labellum). The easiest species to start with are Early Purple Orchid, Common Spotted Orchid, Bee Orchid and Common Twayblade. This is because they are relatively more common than other species and most can occur in grassland and woodland habitats.
Early Purple Orchids are out amongst the bluebells in older woodlands amongst the Bluebells or edges of woods around mid-May. They are a fuchsia pink/purple colour with minimal patterns on the lower petals, and have spotted leaves at the base.
Green-winged Orchids can be found in species-rich, old meadows, often popping up with lots of Cowslips in mid-May. They don’t have spotted leaves and have green streaks on the pink/purple wing like petals.
Early to mid June is then the best time to look for Common Spotted and Bee Orchids in the species-rich grasslands. They have spotted leaves that occur up the stems, and much paler flowers than the Early Purple, that are streaked and patterned with dark pink.
Bee Orchid is very distinctive with its mimicry of a bee flower and unmarked green leaves.
Common Twayblade has two large, rounded leaves that grow opposite each other, with the flower spike starting as a knobbly spike between the two leaves, growing taller to display small green flowers that appear to have two dangly legs.
It is always exciting to find any kind of orchid, and worthy of a photo! Just remember to be careful not to tread on any nearby orchids that are just coming up. Share the photos with friends, as you never known who doesn’t know that our wonderful UK orchid species even exist.
Further reading
FSC Orchid Guide
The Orchid Hunter by Leif Bersweden
Britain’s Orchids A Field Guide to the Orchids of Great Britain and Ireland by Sean Cole, Michael Waller and Sarah Stribbling
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