Liparis loeselii Fen Orchid

A very rare Red Data and Section 7 orchid of dune slacks with globally important populations in some of Glamorgan's coastal sand dunes. It was first discovered in Glamorgan in 1905 by H.J. Riddelsdell, but was already known from Pembrey Burrows in Carmarthenshire at that time. Population sizes often exhibit significant variation in sites such as Kenfig National Nature Reserve, where the presence of this species is of international importance. However, dune slacks are prone to rapid successional changes leading to unfavourable conditions and this has led to local decline and disappearnace of this species. At Kenfig, measures which include mechanical removal of rank vegetation and surface scarification have had great success in reversing this trend and in some years hundreds of individuals appear in managed slacks. However, it has disappeared from many of its former sites in West Glamorgan. There were several large populations on Crymlyn Burrows in the 1970s, rediscovered by Hilary Hipkin in the 1970s, but it hasn't been recorded there for over 30 years. Populations were also lost from Oxwich and Whitford dunes but translocation of juvenile individuals from the Kenfig population has resulted in a reintroduction success at the latter site. A large population which was present on Margam (Morfa) Burrows in the 1920s, discovered by Eleanor Vachell and Miss Insole, was eradicated after the development of the Port Talbot Steelworks (now Tata Steel).

Native