The Lady's-Slipper Orchid in 1930: a family secret

摘要

Since the formation of the Cypripedium Committee in 1969 to help protect our native Lady's-Slipper Orchid Cypripedium calceolus and its habitat, much about it has been documented. However, information before 1969 is scant because the orchid and its location were kept a closely guarded secret for nearly forty years. Attempts to unravel the mystery of the orchid and its rediscovery have largely been based on the synthesis of correspondence between established naturalists and the credibility of that information. Up to now the generally accepted story was that the orchid was probably rediscovered by the Jarman brothers in 1930 (Lee, 2015). The purpose of this article, by seeking an original source, is to investigate this claim and to attempt to uncoverhow an orchid, thought to be extinct in the wild in Britain since 1917, was rediscovered and to understand some of the history of what might have occurred between its rediscovery and the formation of the Cypripedium Committee.