Skip to content

Patch of one of UK's rarest flowers saved from falling into the sea

Gus Routledge The flower is small, white and star-shaped. There are dried out, fallen branches next to the flower.Gus Routledge
One-flowered wintergreens are only found in woodlands in north-east Scotland

Conservationists say thousands of rare flowers have been saved from falling into the sea on the Moray coast.

In the UK, the one-flowered wintergreen can only be found in pine woodlands in north-east Scotland.

More than half the entire population of the star-shaped flower have been lost over the last 50 years.

About 3,400 of the tiny plants have been rescued from an area of eroded beach at Culbin Sands, an area of dunes and forest near Findhorn, and moved to a safe location nearby.

Plantlife Scotland worked with Forestry and Land Scotland, NatureScot and volunteers to rescue the plants.

A patch of the flowers was carefully dug up at a site on the coast where it has been eroded away by the sea over the last few years.

Sam Jones, senior ecological adviser at Plantlife Scotland, said: "This type of ground-breaking conservation work will help ensure endangered species like the one-flowered wintergreen are not lost.

"It has been a privilege to be able to help save this patch of the precious and rare one-flowered wintergreen which was at serious risk of being lost."

Gus Routledge A view from above of conservationists in an area of shoreline at Culbin Sands. The beach is below them and forestry on the other side.Gus Routledge
The flowers were moved from an area of eroded beach
NatureScot/Richard Spowart A conservationist, who is down on their knees on the forest flower, digs up a clump of one-flowered wintergreen.NatureScot/Richard Spowart
Conservationists moved more than 3,400 plants to a safer location at Culbin

The plant is often found growing in fungi-rich areas.

Instead of relying on photosynthesis - a process involving sunlight, water and carbon dioxide - to create food and oxygen to survive, the flowers can also take energy from fungus in woodland soils.

Conservationists said increasingly warmer conditions caused by climate change risked drying up these damp soils.

Iain Macdonald, biodiversity adviser at NatureScot said: "We don't yet know how many plants will survive at their new home in Culbin Forest.

"But we do know that it was only a matter of time before they would have all been lost to the sea if we'd left them where they were.

"So, any survival will be a success, and if we can continue to introduce more plants to some of the small, existing populations then we'll strengthen their ability to cope with our changing environment."