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Fifty orchid species are known in wild situations in the
British Isles today. Approximately a third of these are thought
to be threatened and ten species are protected under Schedule
8 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act (1981).
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| Liparis loeselii |
Several species have populations of less than one hundred
individuals, and their natural distribution has been further
disrupted in the last 50 years by changes in land use, including
drainage of marshes and increased use of fertilisers. The
rarest species must be the lady's slipper orchid (Cypripedium
calceolus) which through over collection is now reduced
to a single flowering individual. The fen orchid (Liparis
loeselii) is severely threatened in both Britain and Europe
due to the drainage of its habitat of dune slack and fen.
One way of protecting wild orchids is to learn how to grow
them well in cultivation and to propagate them in order to
supplement and extend the natural populations.
The Sainsbury Orchid Conservation Project was initiated
in 1983 at the Micropropagation Unit at the Royal Botanic
Gardens, Kew with the generous backing of Sir Robert and Lady
Sainsbury. The intention was to grow British and European
orchids from seeds, using laboratory and greenhouse techniques,
and then re-establish plants at safe sites in the wild.
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