Bad news - Ladys Slipper

[KeenTeen17]

It seems another plant thief has struck the Ladys Slipper it has had 7 flowers on it this year and one has been picked for a collector. At least this won't do as much damage as digging it up like the one in 2003 did

[treecreeper]

KT, is this the native population? I heard about the long-established garden-origin plants in Lancashire being attacked a year or two ago but I don't know if they were wiped out.

[Hedge Witch]

What Lady's Slipper are we on about? Is it a very famous plant or something?

[treecreeper]

It's a botanical tragedy Hedgie. A plant too beautiful for its own good.

[KeenTeen17]

its the Ladies Slipper at the public site in Silverdale. The one in Yorkshire is guarded by the equivalent of the botanical SAS.


Hedgie this is the Slipper:

[Hedge Witch]

OK, I know nothing, but are you saying there are only two plants (not colonies, plants) in the country

PS Very beautiful shots!

[the young hunter]

The Silverdale site in Lancashire is only one plant (KT's photos) and the Yorkshire site (I think) is a small colony of around 5 plants.


Mike

[Hedge Witch]

Thanks Mike

[PeterJL]

The Lady's Slipper Orchid at Silverdale is possibly 100 years old and might even be an original native. A record of that time says that one was recorded "Near Silverdale Station" which would have been the nearest landmark. It is said that this particular orchid is Austrian but the science isn't really good enough for such distinctions (analysis reveals a bigger variation between orchids of the same origin than was once thought).

However the single remaining native plant at Grassington has been propagated by botanists at Kew and the first "daughter" plants flowered in new sites in 2000. Since then Cypripedium orchids have been planted in suitable habitats throughout the limestone areas of the north and there is at least one plant and in flower (with one bloom) at Gaitbarrows National Nature Reserve not far from Silverdale. There are others with flowers elsewhere.

I photographed both the Gaitbarrows orchid and the Silverdale one this year and they look the same but the younger plant is obviously smaller.

There were two buds and five flowers on the Silverdale plant on 26th May and by 1st June the two buds were in flower and there were only four other flowers. I assumed (wrongly) that one had faded and that the wardens had removed it to make the plant more photogenic. There is a warden's tent permanently at the site but it isn't continuously wardened. There was nobody guarding the plant on either of the two occasions I photographed it this year.

The one at Gaitbarrows isn't guarded or marked - you just have to find it but this orchid isn't really Britain's rarest plant anymore.

[the young hunter]

The Red Helleborine is probably Britain's rarest orchid now since it only has 3 sites (only one of which that isn't declining). The Ghost orchid is even rarer but there is a chance it is extinct now of course.

Mike