After a 15-year absence, the ghost orchid – Britain's rarest flower – has been rediscovered.
In only the second sighting of this species since the 1980s, the orchid was found by Richard Bate, a dentist and member of the Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland (BSBI).
He has been searching for the ghost orchid for 30 years as part of his love for wild orchids, which was inspired by seeing a bee orchid when he was young.
The rare flower was only recorded in Britain for the first time in 1854 in Herefordshire, unusually recent for a native species in Britain to be recorded. This lateness is believed to be down to the species spending so much time out of sight underground.
The ghost orchid is so named due to its pale colouration and its habit of appearing in very dark areas of woodland. It is an unusual plant, growing no leaves nor producing chlorophyll – thus unable to photosynthesise. Instead, it sources its nutrients from underground fungi. It only appears above the ground to flower, and only when the conditions are right for it.
“Knowing that the ghost orchid is still here and hasn’t gone extinct in Britain fills me with hope for the future of this species,” says Bate.
“I am deeply grateful to the BSBI for their unwavering support of botanists like me and for their dedication to studying, recording and conserving Britain's wild plants. This discovery reminds us that even in the darkest woods, there is always hope.”
The ghost orchid was actually declared extinct in Britain by experts in 2009, after it hadn’t been seen for 22 years. With excellent timing, one was spotted flowering only a week later.
That defiant orchid was the last ghost orchid to be seen, until Bate’s sighting this summer. All British sightings have been limited to just four English counties: Herefordshire, Shropshire, Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire.
The site of this latest ghost orchid is being kept secret to protect the rare plant and the habitat around it from being trampled, or worse, removed. Unfortunately, orchids and other rare plants are sometimes dug up.
Image credits: Richard Bate
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