Introduction

The Nature Conservancy Council (NCC) is the official government body concerned with the policies and practices of nature conservation. Since the passing of the Wildlife and Countryside Act in 1981 it has had a legal duty to fulfil its role in protecting sites and species of special interest in Britain.

Listed under Schedule 8 of the Act are 93 plants which are so rare that they are considered worthy of special protection. Nine of these are orchids (Table 1).

In Britain we have about 50 native, terrestrial orchid species. We say ‘about’ as there is constant debate regarding the exact status of several of our species. Twelve of these are nationally rare and are listed in the Red Data Book (Perring & Farrell 1983). Two other species, Spiranthes aestivalis and Ophrys bertolonii, are extinct and a third, Hammarbya paludosa is threatened in Europe, but thankfully more widespread in Britain.

In 1978, Lynne Farrell transferred from the Biological Records Centre, Institute of Terrestrial Ecology, at Monks Wood Experimental Station to take up a post entitled ‘Botanist’ in the Chief Scientist's Team of the NCC based at Huntingdon. This post had several facets, including grasslands and heathlands, as well as rare plants. Since then, the work has been directly concerned with rare plant conservation and particularly with orchid protection as they are a group of plants which have, and will continue to attract a great deal of attention.