The Orchid Outlaw: On a Mission to Save Britain's Rarest Flowers

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The irony is that while the Act excuses “lawful” operations from destroying threatened species, it doesn’t extend that kind of grace to an unauthorised individual digging up a plant. This is a fascinating book, with a huge amount of information, and lots of references plus further reading.

The Orchid Outlaw - Wainwright Prize The Orchid Outlaw - Wainwright Prize

And now there is the messianic eco-activist quest narrative, where an outraged individual takes the environment into his or her own hands, with many a setback and epiphany along the way.Several varieties of Bee can be found on Minchinhampton Common, alongside the lilac steeples of Chalk Fragrant-orchids with their strong, sweet perfume, and the green-flowered Frog orchid, which, in recent years, has become increasingly rare. A secure home is the first step in addressing the cruel cycle of poverty to ensure people can fulfil their potential. There are elusive bog orchids no taller than your thumb; many species and varieties of marsh orchids — early, southern, northern, pugsley’s, heath-spotted, Irish, common-spotted and frog — producing bouquets of speckled pinks, magentas, crimsons and even, in the case of the frog, green trimmed with russet. That is a story not exclusive to orchids and the Cotswolds: the native inhabitants of these islands are dwindling at an unsustainable rate.

orchids turned me into an outlaw Rescuing doomed orchids turned me into an outlaw

The Cotswolds are fortunate in that nationally rare habitats, where orchids grow, persist among the area’s humpbacked hills and wooded valleys.Greater Butterfly Orchids, for example, are ‘luminous’ by moonlight, attracting moths: ‘drawn to their ethereal glow, scent and nectar’, they ‘rest their foreheads against the sepals and petals which curve over the opening to the nectary’. The spectacular lady orchid resembles a cloud of little women in burgundy skirts and bonnets being swept up into the sky on a breeze. Musk orchids are one of over 50 orchid species native to Britain; many of them, including the Musk, experiencing a rapid decline in numbers. For Ben Jacob, it means single-handedly ‘rescuing’ live orchid plants from housing-development sites, usually at dawn, always alone and sometimes at risk to life and liberty.