The Lady’s-slipper Orchid

Cypripedium  calceolus


The iconic Lady’s-slipper Orchid once held the unenviable title of being ‘Britain’s rarest flower’ with only one known plant surviving in the wild. In the 1990’s, the Cypripedium Committee, working in partnership with Kew Gardens decided to try to restore this elegant plant to sites within its former range and the ‘Lady’s-slipper Orchid Reintroduction Programme’ was initiated.
Thanks to cross breeding with other plants from private collections they have now been established at sites in several limestone areas of the North of England.