Groundbreaking project successfully returns orchid on the brink of extinction to Yorkshire - Yorkshire Wildlife Trust
A lifelong quest to return one of the UK’s most spectacular and rarest wildflowers to the wild has shown its first signs of success.
Last summer, a team 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) were delighted to discover the first new lady’s-slipper orchid to appear in the wild for nearly 100 years.
Over-collecting and habitat loss meant the lady’s-slipper orchid was believed to be extinct in the UK by the early part of the 20th Century. When a single plant was then discovered in a remote location in the Yorkshire Dales in 1930, its location was kept a closely-guarded secret with decades of dedicated volunteers providing round-the-clock monitoring to prevent the plant being dug up and stolen.
Two years ago, Yorkshire Wildlife Trust secured a grant from Natural England’s Species Recovery Programme to continue and extend the work protecting the habitat of the remaining wild plant, rearing lots of new orchids and planting out many of these hand-reared orchids into former haunts.
Last June, the project team was delighted to discover an entirely ‘new’ plant at one of these reintroduction sites – which meant the orchids planted out by the project had managed to produce seed that had settled and germinated.
Jono Leadley, managing the project on behalf of Yorkshire Wildlife Trust, said, “This was a truly thrilling moment. 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."
Posted On: 03/06/2025
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