Grant of £2,590 awarded in 2021. Total project cost £4,432
Lady Orchid is one of our rarest orchids: outside its Kentish stronghold, the species is known from just three native colonies, totalling 32 plants since 2010. A colony of plants was discovered in Oxfordshire in 1961 and represents one of the most northerly in Europe. By 2019, just five plants survived at this secret location, though none was ‘strong’ enough to flower. As a species of well illuminated woodland, the lack of management here was deemed the problem.
With the landowner’s permission, a small team of dedicated botanists have undertaken appropriate habitat management and carried out hand pollination of flowers to ensure good seed set and revive the population. The TOE grant addressed the remaining problem – predation by rabbits and deer – by erecting a deer fence to project the orchids during the population’s recovery phase.
As a result, the number of Lady Orchid plants continues to grow and the success of this project has helped unlock a grant of £51,000 from Natural England for further works at this and other Lady Orchid sites in England.
