16/06/2024
Now here’s something you don’t see every day – a lady’s slipper orchid in bloom.
A critically endangered plant in the UK, it can take up to 10 years to flower. It was once thought extinct, until one solitary flower was happily discovered in 1930.
The Species Recovery Programme is overseeing the orchid’s recovery, under a partnership with us, Natural England, the Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland, the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust and Plantlife, as well as local naturalists.
Conservation efforts have focused on propagating and reintroducing lady's slipper plants back into the wild – it’s native to the limestone grassland of Yorkshire, Lancashire, Derbyshire and Cleveland.
Last year, 171 flowers were counted at reintroduction sites, mainly in the Yorkshire Dales.
