First new wild lady's-slipper orchid found in 100 years marks win for conservation

Driven to near-extinction by Victorian plant hunters and habitat loss, the lady's-slipper orchid was believed to have disappeared from the UK ... now it's been found in the wild for the first time in a century. Emily Beament reports

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A DECADES-LONG bid to bring back one of Britain's "rarest and most impressive" wildflowers has seen success, with the first new plant found in the wild in nearly 100 years.

Conservationists now hope the lady's-slipper orchid, which came close to vanishing from the English countryside, could one day be restored across its former range.

The striking lady's-slipper orchid was believed to be extinct in the UK by the early 20th century, due to over-collection by plant hunters gripped by the Victorian orchid craze, and loss of its habitat.

But discovery of a single plant in a remote location in the Yorkshire Dales in 1930 prompted round-the-clock protection by decades of dedicated volunteers, and later efforts to propagate and reintroduce orchids to former haunts.

Two years ago, Yorkshire Wildlife Trust secured a grant from Natural England's species recovery programme to ramp up the work protecting the habitat, rearing many new orchids and reintroducing plants into suitable habitat.

Last year, monitoring uncovered the first "new" lady's-slipper orchid in nearly 100 years at one of the reintroduction sites, which meant planted-out orchids had managed to produce seeds that had germinated into new plants.

Jono Leadley, managing the project on behalf of Yorkshire Wildlife Trust, said the discovery of the new plant in the wild was a "truly thrilling moment".