Lizard Orchid (Himantoglossum hircinum)
Key Details
| Taxonomic Groups: | Vascular plant > flowering plant > Herbaceous plant |
| Red List Status: | Near Threatened (Not Relevant) [NT(nr)] |
| D5 Status: | Included in the baseline Red List Index for England (Wilkins, Wilson & Brown, 2022) |
| Section 41 Status: | (not listed) |
| Taxa Included Synonym: | (none) |
| UKSI Recommended Name: | Himantoglossum hircinum |
| UKSI Recommended Authority: | (L.) Spreng. |
| UKSI Recommended Qualifier: | (none specified) |
| Red List Citation: | in Stroh et al., 2014 |
| Notes on taxonomy/listing: | (none) |
Criteria
| Question 1: | Does species need conservation or recovery in England? |
| Response: | Yes |
| Justification: | Although classified as LC, an apparently undergoing a recent expansion across its previous range, this species does not yet appear to have recovered from a longer-term constriction in its range. |
| Question 2: | Does recovery/ conservation depend on species-specific actions? |
| Response: | Yes |
| Justification: | Given threats to major populations from e.g. development and sea-level rise, targeted management and monitoring are likely to be necessary to ensure recovery is sustained. |
| Question 3: | At a landscape scale, would the species benefit from untargeted habitat management to increase habitat mosaics, structural diversity, or particular successional stages? |
| Response: | No |
| Justification: | This species would not benefit from untargeted management |
Species Assessment
| Current step on the Species Recovery Curve (SRC): | 7. Best approach adopted at appropriate scales |
| Recovery potential/expectation: | Medium-high |
| National Monitoring Resource: | Combination - insufficient |
| Species Comments: |
Key Actions
Key Action 1
Proposed Action: Establish and maintain a database of all known sites, to include any available data about population size, population history, site ownership, and management.
Action targets: 3. National Monitoring Plan agreed and implemented
Action type: Status survey/review
Duration: 1 year
Scale of Implementation: ≤ 50 sites
High priority sites:
Comments:
Key Action 2
Proposed Action: At all sites with persistent populations of more than 10 plants, establish a suitable management regime. Where the sward needs to be managed in order to maintain or create open ground for seed germination, management should ideally consist of annual or biennial cutting in late summer, with removal of all arisings.
Action targets: 7. Best approach adopted at appropriate scales
Action type: Habitat management
Duration: 1 year
Scale of Implementation: ≤ 20 sites
High priority sites:
Comments: Number of sites to which this action would apply is unclear.
Key Action 3
Proposed Action: Encourage the species to spread and increase by establishing suitable new habitat close to existing populations, particularly where populations are larger or situated towards the edge of the species' range.
Action targets: 8. Species recovering
Action type: Habitat creation
Duration: >10 years
Scale of Implementation: ≤ 10 sites
High priority sites:
Comments:
Acknowledgment:
Data used on this website are adapted from Threatened species recovery actions 2025 baseline (JP065): Technical report and spreadsheet user guide (Natural England, 2025). Available here.