Fen orchid refound in Carmarthenshire by 11-year old BSBI botanist

Image courtesy of
John Crellin/ Floral Images
http://www.floralimages.co.uk/page.
php?taxon=liparis_loeselii,1

Congratulations to botanist Tristan Moss (age 11) who spotted Fen Orchid during a visit to the MoD Establishment at Pendine, Carmarthenshire, while attending the Glynhir Recording Week with fellow BSBI botanists. 

According to Richard Pryce, BSBI County Recorder for Carmarthenshire and the organiser of the recording week, "the orchid had not been seen in Carmarthenshire for 19 years and was thought to have gone locally extinct". 

BSBI member Ruth Harding, whose day job is as the officer at Natural Resources Wales with responsibility for the site, said that she was "thrilled" at Tristan's find because "site management has been geared to restoring habitat suitable for the orchid to recolonise".

You can read more about the story of Tristan's find in this press release and in reports across the media in the past 24 hours: the story was picked up by ITV News, was covered in The Times and many regional newspapers and websites, it appears on the MoD Government website and was even mentioned by Martha Kearney on this morning's Today programme on Radio 4 (1 hour 46 minutes in). 

Tristan must have very sharp eyes because, as the image below shows, the Fen Orchid can be quite difficult to spot!

Thanks are due to Ruth and her team, to Richard and Kath for organising the recording week (a much-loved fixture in the BSBI events calendar) and for alerting all of us to this story, and to the staff at Pendine Establishment for access permission but the last word goes to Tristan who said: "I've been coming to BSBI meetings in Wales since I was a baby, re-finding the fen orchid made this the best year yet". 

Image courtesy of
John Crellin/ Floral Images
http://www.floralimages.co.uk/page.
php?taxon=liparis_loeselii,1