I just found a Bee Orchid in the UK

[Viper]

Me and my friend were walking and there was lots of flowers in this green patch and i spotted this purple flower and thought that is a bee orchid!! Very beautiful and has 2 buds.

Are they rare, is it okay to cut them? Or is it easy to uproot them and re plant ?

[TOMMYMIAMI]

Awesome!!! I so love these!

[WhiteRabbit]

Awesome!

Do not cut or dig them up - First, they may be a protected species. (And if not protected, they could easily become endangered if people start collecting them). Second, many wild collected orchids die, even ones that seem like they shouldn't be difficult to grow; and others are very environment specific,and won't grow out of that environment.

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

I would advise not to even pick the flowers. Picking an orchid's flowers was one of the problems that certain Disas had down in South Africa, particularly the ones that were blue or red.

Ophrys can be touchy little buggers. Their life cycle is not like epiphytic orchids.

This is how they grow, starting with a tuberoid that has just broken dormancy:

1. Tuberoid breaks dormancy during early to mid fall and the tiny teeth-like shoot on top of the tuberoid starts to grow, slowly at first, then as time progresses, more and more rapidly.

2. The teeth-like growth eventually sprouts new leaves one at a time. They only grow a total of about 2 - 4 leaves, with 2 leaves being the most common.

3. The new shoot starts to develop new roots while it grows leaves. This orchid will not produce a whole lot of roots. They put out no more than 6 roots.

4. Once the shoot reaches maturity and has mature leaves and roots, the orchid will start to produce new tuberoids. They may produce only 1 - 2 new tuberoids per mature growth.

5. Before the orchid's new tuberoids mature, the mother shoot might produce flowers.

6. Assuming that the orchid was not pollinated. When the orchid is done flowering, the entire mother plant will start deteriorating. After fully dying back, the orchid leaves behind the new tuberoids.

7. New tuberoids may or may not grow a new teeth-like growth. If they do not grow the teeth-like growth prior to dormancy, they will do so at the onset of the new growth cycle after dormancy has been broken.

8. Assuming that the mother shoot was pollinated, not only will the orchid leave behind the new tuberoids, but they will have hopefully produced seeds that will germinate whenever it is they germinate.

Because of this life cycle and how easy it is to damage the tuberoid, it is not advised to randomly dig up this orchid. The tuberoids look literally like a miniature potato that are about 1.2 cm - 2.54 cm long, with very, very thin skin.

If you want them, harvest the seeds and sow them in-vitro at an orchid seed sowing lab. They are easily produced from seed. And when I say easy, I mean you can get hundreds of seedlings without a problem. Ophrys have been successfully artificially propagated for years now, there is really no need to dig up plants. Like I said, just collect seeds.

[HighSeas]

KOG...You are such a wealth of information! I love reading your posts! (And learning from them) Thank you for always taking the time that you do to post information!

[RosieC]

Originally Posted by WhiteRabbit

Do not cut or dig them up - First, they may be a protected species. (And if not protected, they could easily become endangered if people start collecting them). Second, many wild collected orchids die, even ones that seem like they shouldn't be difficult to grow; and others are very environment specific,and won't grow out of that environment.

Sonya is right, also I think it's illegal to collect any wild plant in the UK. This might have specific protection as well as they are likely endangered, but even if they aren't you should not remove them, or cut the flowers.

Under the Wildlife and Countryside Act, 1981, which covers Britain, it is illegal to uproot any wild plant without permission from the landowner or occupier. Uproot is defined as to ‘dig up or otherwise remove the plant from the land on which it is growing’, whether or not it actually has roots; and, for the purposes of the legislation, the term ‘plant’ includes algae, lichens and fungi as well the true plants – mosses, liverworts and vascular plants. Similar general protection is given to all plants in Northern Ireland, under the Wildlife (Northern Ireland) Order, 1985.

Even plants growing wild are the legal property of somebody, and under the Theft Act, 1968, it is an offence to uproot plants for commercial purposes without authorisation.

The above comes from this link.
Code of conduct for the conservation and enjoyment of wild plants

---------- Post added at 07:54 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:52 PM ----------

I should add that there are people who sell cultivated orchids of this type in the UK. So rather than disturbing one in the wild try someone like Geoff @ Laneside Hardy Orchids as he sells bee orchids.

[My Green Pets]

Please don't dig it up! Take lots of beautiful photos and let it grow in its home!

[Tindomul]

Awesome lip.

[SilverShaded]

Please do not dig up any wild orchid, youll just end up killing it anyway.

Interesting thing about Bee Orchids is that all the UK plants are self pollinated as the right type of Bee for pollination doesnt live in the UK.

[jcec1]

Originally Posted by SilverShaded

Please do not dig up any wild orchid, youll just end up killing it anyway.

Interesting thing about Bee Orchids is that all the UK plants are self pollinated as the right type of Bee for pollination doesnt live in the UK.

That's really interesting about the lack of pollinator bees, I wonder how they got to the UK or maybe the bee died out? Any further information?