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.

Bringing a Plant Back from Extinction

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.

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.

Why Did Fen Orchids Almost Go Extinct?

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.

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.

Add flower finding to your beach activities

The salty sea air and sandy soil might prove a problem for some plants, but others thrive in these conditions.

That being said, nature as a whole, in the UK is in decline. Since the 1970s, a total of 54% of flowering plants have been lost from areas where they used to thrive. This means beautiful plants such as Heather and Chamomile, both of which you can find on our coastlines, are becoming harder to find.

So, when you next head out with your bucket and spade, why not see if you can spot some of the stunning species that adore the seaside as much as we do! Lets take time to appreciate the wild plants that call the coast home and help to protect their future.

What plants can you expect to find?

Keep on the lookout before you arrive at the beach as there are plenty of species to spot on the walk down to the sand. From coastal paths and cliffs to streams that lead to the sea and maritime heaths, there are multiple habitats for plants to call home.

Here are some of our favourites:

• Gorse Ulex sp. can be found on banks, heaths and sea-cliffs. Also a signature plant of acidic rough open space and commonland. 
  Gorse is a shrub that is easy to spot with its sharp green spines and yellow flowers. It gives off the sweet smell of coconut in the spring. While flowers can be seen most of the year, it’s at it’s best between April and May.  On hot summer days you can hear the seed pods popping and crackling open, releasing their seeds. 
• Thrift Armeria maritima, is a common sight in coastal areas all over the UK and can be found on cliffs. maritime rocks and salt marshes as well as further inland.
  These pretty spherical blooms are usually pink, rarely white. Thrifts have two subspecies, maritima and elongata. To tell the difference, maritima has hairy stems. It flowers between April and October.
• Kidney Vetch Anthyllis vulneraria, is common all over the UK coastline and can be found on cliffs, rocks and maritime heaths.
  Kidney Vetch usually has clusters of yellow flowers, though they can be orange or red. To spot the plant, turn the leaves over – they should be white underneath with a soft silky texture. It flowers between June and September.
• Common Reed Phragmites australis, is a common sight all over the UK and can be found in shallow rivers, streams and estuaries near the coast.
  It is a tall perennial growing up to 3m. The leaves which are green in colour with a grey tinge are long and flat. Common Reeds have large fluffy, flower spikes that are purple to brown. They flower between August and October.
• Biting Stonecrop Sedum acre is a perennial plant that can be found all around the coast from cliff tops to sand-dunes and shingle beaches. It can also be found further inland, usually growing in walls or cracks of paths.
  Plants grow up to 10cm and have overlapping fleshy leaves. It flowers between May and July with bright yellow, star shaped flowers, that are a favourite of pollinators.
• Sheep’s-bit Jasione montana, is a biennial plant that can be found on coastal cliffs, dunes, and maritime heaths as well as further inland on acidic soils, hedge banks, rough grasslands and rocky hillsides. It is widespread in west Britain, but scattered elsewhere.
  This pretty plant has rounded flower heads that are bright blue in colour and grow up to 35mm in diameter. They flower between May and August.

Once you get down to the beach itself, a whole new habitat opens up. While the landscape might seem arid, there a number of interesting plants you can find living in the sand.

Here are some of our favourites:

• Sea Mayweed Tripleurospermum maritimum, can be found on cliffs and sea walls, but also shingle beaches and even sand. This hardy perennial, which is part of the daisy family, can be found in coastal zones all around UK.
  The flowers look like large daisies with a mass of leaves that are quite thick and succulent. It flowers between July and August.
• Rock Samphire Crithmum maritimum, as the name suggests, prefers rockier locations, and can be found on sea walls, cliffs and rocks on the beach as well as shingle beaches themselves. They can be found on the south and west coasts of Britain and all around the coast of Ireland.
  Rock Samphire has lots of branches with succulent type leaves that are rounded. It flowers with small yellowish green flowers between July and August.
• Sea-holly Eryngium maritimum, can be found popping out of sand dunes as well as fine shingle beaches all around the UK, apart from the north and east of Scotland as well as north east England.
  Sea-holly is easy to spot with it’s spiny leaves. It does look like it could be a relative of Holly, but is actually within the Apiaceae family, which includes Fennel, Parsnip and Coriander. Sea-holly has blue flowers that can sometimes have a metallic sheen.
• Sea Sandwort Honckenya peploides, is a maritime succulent that can be found all over the UK coast on sand and shingle beaches.
  Sea Sandwort is a long creeping perennial that has fleshy succulent leaves up to 18mm. It has small flowers up to just 10mm in diameter with greenish petals. It flowers between May and August.
• Common Restharrow Ononis repens can be found in most areas of the UK, apart from north Scotland and west Ireland. You can spot this perennial plant in sand dunes and shingle beaches as well as further inland.
  Plants grow to around 60cm and have stems that are green and sometimes slightly red in colour. The stems are covered in tiny hairs. They have small pink flowers, similar to those of a pea, which can be seen between June and September.
• Sea Campion Silene uniflora is a perennial plant that can be found on coastal cliffs, rocky ground and shingle beaches, all around the UK coastline.
  Plants can grow up to 25 cm. Their flowers have five white petals with splits down the middle, which can make it look as though the flowers have ten petals each. They flower between June and August.

How to get started?

The best thing about species spotting, is that you really don’t need any equipment that you wouldn’t already have, just appropriate clothing and footwear for exploring the coast.

If you did want to bring anything along, you could take a plant guide, so that you can name any species you find that we haven’t included. You could also bring a hand lens with a x10 or x20 magnification to get a close up look at the petals and leaves and a camera to capture memories from your adventure.

To help you ID some of the species you find, why not read our blog here, on three apps to help you identify wildflowers with your phone.

Remember to stay safe when you are by the sea. Stay well away from cliff edges and bases, pay attention to any warning signs such as those in areas where there may be rock falls and always make yourself aware of the tide times before heading to the beach.

Like all living organisms, plants and fungi have DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) in their cells. DNA is the genetic code, which is the blueprint for genes, which gives an organism its specific characteristics. Different species will have a different DNA blueprint (with small variations within that as well) and these can help us tell species apart and see which ones are closely related.

I was recently offered a place on an exciting course to learn all about DNA barcoding and how it can help my work as a botanist.

The DNA region used for barcoding differs between kingdoms:

• In fungi, the most commonly used DNA barcode is the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region. This is the specific part of the DNA sequence used for fungi.
• There are several candidates for DNA barcoding in plants. The two gene targets recommended are maturase K (matK) and ribulose bisphosphate carboxylase (rbcL).

DNA barcoding relies on a region of DNA that varies significantly between different species to allow the different species to be identified.

To check if we’ve done it right, we use a method called gel electrophoresis. This method is used to separate mixtures of DNA, RNA, or proteins to molecular size (you will see a nice clear line in the gel if it has been successful.) This helps us see if the DNA we extracted is good and whether we can send it to the lab. The lab will then send us the DNA sequence so it can be compared it to other sequences in a big database.

How can DNA barcoding help with plant conservation?

Using these DNA barcoding skills can help us in many ways, including identifying single species or a community of species.

• Single species barcoding – is when you collect a sample from a plant, fungus or animal, extract DNA from the sample, amplify the DNA barcode and send the DNA barcode for sequencing. This can help us record species accurately and identify species we have on our reserves that are difficult to identify. (The International Barcode of Life (iBOL) project seeks to make DNA barcoding globally accessible for the discovery and identification of all multicellular life on Earth.)
• Community barcoding or metabarcoding – is when a sample contains a mixture of species, so DNA is extracted, amplified and sequenced from all the species in the mix that are targeted by the DNA barcode used. An example of metabarcoding is identifying the fungal diversity in a soil sample.
• Detection of invasive species – DNA sampled from the environment (eDNA) can be barcoded to monitor the presence of invasive species of concern.

It is quite a technical process but as local groups (mainly fungi recording organisations) are starting to invest in the kit, more people should be able to get involved in DNA barcoding.

Volunteer biological recording group RoAM (Recorders of the Avalon Marshes) at Somerset Wetlands NNR (National Nature Reserve) organised the DNA barcoding course with funding from Natural England through the Natural Capital and Ecosystem Assessment Programme. I was offered a spot on this exciting course due to my work and contacts in a voluntary capacity with the North Somerset and Bristol Fungi Group.

Natural England: EDNA (Environmental DNA) approaches to environmental monitoring are incredibly valuable to Natural England’s work, but recognise their limitations, not least that some groups of fungi, lichen and invertebrates are poorly represented in genomic databases. By helping to train our highly skilled taxonomic recorders with DNA barcoding means better records and more effective eDNA outputs.

On the high peaks of Yr Wyddfa (Snowdon) and on the Glyderau there grows a forest that is little more than a foot high. A forest of Juniper Juniperus communis subsp. nana nestled among the rocks in the crags and crevices. They are everywhere, if you look in the right places, creeping through the thin turf and sprawling over rocks.

Where can you find Wales’ Juniper forests?

If you scramble over the jagged ridges of Crib Goch and Crib Y Ddisgl you will find them. On Esgair Felen they tumble down the cliffs and on the upper reaches of the Watkin Path you will be walking through the middle of this ‘coedwig fach’ (little forest). Y Lliwedd, one of the satellite peaks of Yr Wyddfa, holds the largest of these forests and here you can’t fail to notice them, although you may not realise they are trees.

Most of us now think of Leeks as the large, cultivated vegetable we see in supermarkets – not at all suitable for attaching to a helmet in battle! However their genus, Allium, also contains a number of species that are either native, or ancient introductions to Britain. These have a far lengthier heritage than the domesticated vegetable, and would have been growing in north Wales at the time of both King Cadawladr and St David.

One of these is Allium ampeloprasum var. ampleoprasum, a variety of the Wild Leek that still grows today in Anglesey. It is a large plant, growing up to 2m high, with a dense spherical flowerhead of pink-purple flowers. This would certainly have made a distinctive and plausible addition a soldier’s helmet. Could this be the real Leek of Welsh legend?

Has Wild Leek always been found in Wales?

Wild Leek isn’t actually native to Britain – but it’s one of the archaeophytes, meaning that it was introduced by humans long ago – perhaps by traders, hundreds of years before the time of St David. It’s likely that it would have been grown and valued by the people of north Wales for its nutritional and medical properties.

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:

• Sand dunes in South Wales
• Fens of the Norfolk Broads.

We believe that the orchid could finally be removed from the Red Lists for both England  and Great Britain.

Conservation Efforts in England

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.

Conservation Efforts in Wales

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.

How we’re helping Wild Cotoneaster

This, paired with efforts to plant out young plants have been a resounding success, and we’ve gone from 6 to well over 70 plants. We are now working with research students, Dan and Treboth botanic garden to understand the impacts that changes to grazing practices have on this species, so that we can understand how best to manage for it in the future.

What we’re finding is that managing to support this species is having knock-on positive effects on other species on the Great Orme, which demonstrates how targeted species recovery work can have a cascading positive benefit beyond that species, out into the wider ecosystem.

Its preference for inaccessible places, makes it problematic (to say the least) to monitor. However, conservation and extreme sports aligned when Robbie, Alex Turner and Mike Raine went out on ropes to survey for this mountain treasure. Their efforts have revealed that the plant’s population has increased from 2 individuals, to 4!

While that is still terrifyingly few, it represents a doubling of the global population of this species, and gives us hope that with support, these populations can recover.

How we’re helping Snowdon Hawkweed

We are delighted to have received funding for Natur am Byth!, Wales’ flagship species recovery project which we are part of, along with nine other environmental charities. Robbie will be leading on the Tlysau Mynydd Eryri (Mountain Jewels of Snowdonia) to provide an invaluable lifeline to species like Snowdon Hawkweed.

Once the project begins in September we’re going to be working with the National Trust to manage the grazing of sheep and goats on the mountain, which will hopefully create more undisturbed habitat for this species to colonize.

How we’re helping Rosy Saxifrage

This species is classed as threatened on the UK level red list, even though globally it’s been assessed as Least Concern (it can be found across the alpine landscapes of Europe). Each species is really important part of our natural heritage and to lose a species native to a country represents a significant loss, not only culturally, but ecologically too.

Rosy saxifrage is one such species that we’ve lost, it is now extinct in the wild in Wales. But efforts are underway to reintroduce it to a trial site later this year. Fantastically, the plants that will be used are of Welsh provenance, saved from a cutting taken in the 1960s, meaning that our national genetic identity for this species will be preserved and allowed to repopulate our landscape one more.

Why do we even bother?

We are proud supporters of the global Reverse the Red campaign – a movement dedicated to spotlighting all of the work that’s being done to try and stop extinctions and prevent further species decline.

Tune in across the month to find out more about the species that we and our partners are working on to Reverse the Red and fight back against extinction.

The county flower of Caithness, Scottish Primrose can only reproduce through seeds and is known to flower twice a year, once in the early spring and again in the summer. It is easily distinguished from the common primrose by its blueish-purple petals.

Scottish Primroses greatest threat is inappropriate grazing, as it declined historically to cultural intensification. However, climate change poses just as great a challenge as it is a species that is sensitive to climate extremes.

How we’re helping Scottish Primrose

Incidentally, species that are found in such a small area will inevitably be in danger of becoming endangered. Unfortunately, long term trends show a steep decline in Scottish Primrose populations – that’s why the Species on the Edge project has identified it as one of its key species. Our North Coast team is focused on working to grow current populations, ensuring that this beautiful rarity is not lost.

Favouring damp, nutrient-poor areas with good water flow, marsh saxifrage is an attractive plant with bright yellow flowers which appear through August and into mid-September. Where it does cling on, it can flower in great profusion, with over 1000 flowering shoots at Munsary in some years making this population the largest in Scotland.

Changes in land use, such as afforestation, over-grazing and the draining of moorland, have led to major losses of this beautiful plant. Its extinction in Austria, the Czech Republic and the Netherlands, and its dramatic decline in Britain and across Europe, led to its protection under the European Union’s EC Habitats Directive.

How we’re helping Marsh Saxifrage

Marsh Saxifrage can recover when conditions are right – the population at Munsary was only discovered in 2002. Plantlife has been involved in its conservation for a number of years, and it seems that this appearance was in response to a drop in grazing levels, with the plant having been hanging on undetected for many years.

This loss of the forests means the loss of the Twinflower. Its populations have become so fragmented and isolated from each other that the distances are too great for its pollinators, which it relies on to produce viable seed. As a result, the remaining populations have become vulnerable to extinctions, with none of the genetic resilience that pollination can bring.  

This genetic isolation makes the remaining plants susceptible to disease and changing environmental conditions. In the long-term, if it can’t reproduce, the species will be lost from Scotland.

How we’re helping Twinflower

Plantlife is working on the Cairngorms Rare Plants and Wild Connections project with partners to restore the forests and help the Twinflower re-establish itself. To achieve this, we are undertaking translocations of genetically different patches of the flower to areas near to each other to allow pollination to occur. This is being done with the help of volunteers and in partnership with landowners across the national park.

Why are we doing this work?

We are proud supporters of the global Reverse the Red campaign – a movement dedicated to spotlighting all of the work that’s being done to try and stop extinctions and prevent further species decline.

Tune in across the month to find out more about the species that we and our partners are working on to Reverse the Red and fight back against extinction.