Man Orchid (Orchis anthropophora)
Key Details
| Taxonomic Groups: | Vascular plant > flowering plant > Herbaceous plant |
| Red List Status: | Endangered (Not Relevant) [EN(nr)] |
| D5 Status: | Included in the baseline Red List Index for England (Wilkins, Wilson & Brown, 2022) |
| Section 41 Status: | (not listed) |
| Taxa Included Synonym: | Aceras anthropophorum |
| UKSI Recommended Name: | Orchis anthropophora |
| UKSI Recommended Authority: | (L.) All. |
| 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: | Shows continuing decline following long-term contraction in range and Area of Occupancy. |
| Question 2: | Does recovery/ conservation depend on species-specific actions? |
| Response: | Yes |
| Justification: | Colonisation/re-establishment on new/restored habitat is possible, but at very least requires targeted monitoring. |
| 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: | Yes |
| Justification: | The species would probably benefit from restoration/recreation of calcareous grassland in the vicinity of existing populations. |
Species Assessment
| Current step on the Species Recovery Curve (SRC): | 6. Recovery solutions trialled |
| Recovery potential/expectation: | Medium-high |
| National Monitoring Resource: | Combination - insufficient |
| Species Comments: | Outlying populations in central England are genetically distinct from those in South-east England and France. |
Key Actions
Key Action 1
Proposed Action: Maintain or restore grassland management by appropriate seasonal grazing and/or mowing (grazing preferred) at extant sites, together with scrub removal or rotational scrub management.
Action targets: 6. Recovery solutions trialled
Action type: Habitat management
Duration: 3-5 years
Scale of Implementation: ≤ 20 sites
High priority sites: Sites on the margin of the species' current range (including Lincolnshire, East Anglia and the Chilterns) should be a priority.
Comments: Sites on the margin of the species' current range (including Lincolnshire, East Anglia and the Chilterns) should be a priority, particularly sites outside SSSIs.
Key Action 2
Proposed Action: Restore and recreate calcareous grassland close to known populations in order to facilitate population increase and spread. This should include relatively small areas, particularly road verges and other similar linear habitat.
Action targets: 6. Recovery solutions trialled
Action type: Habitat creation
Duration: >10 years
Scale of Implementation: ≤ 50 sites
High priority sites:
Comments: Many existing sites are on road verges, which may be valuable in encouraging the species' spread.
Key Action 3
Proposed Action: Carry out periodic monitoring of a sample of sites, based (for example) on the BSBI's Threatened Plants Project in order to gauge local population change and threats and to provide an assessment of the success of actions 1 and 2.
Action targets: 6. Recovery solutions trialled
Action type: Targeted monitoring
Duration: 1 year
Scale of Implementation: ≤ 50 sites
High priority sites:
Comments: To be repeated every 5 years.
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.