Bee Orchid

What is the Bee orchid?

The Bee orchid is an indicative plant species of chalk grassland. A small orchid, it has a rosette of leaves at ground level and two leaves that grow up the stem as a sheath. The stem displays a number of relatively large flowers with pink sepals that look like wings, and furry, brown lips with yellow markings which mimic bees.

Why is the Bee orchid important to the Surrey Hills?

It’s status is frequent to locally common on chalk grassland, especially disturbed chalk grassland such as chalk quarries.

What habitat does the Bee orchid like?

Chalk Grassland

Chalk grassland (or lowland calcareous grassland) is a habitat of international importance for both its rarity and its species richness. It is found over limestone and chalk rocks and grows below an altitude of 250 metres on shallow, lime-rich soils, mainly in the warmer, drier south and east of the UK. As many as 40 different plant species can be found within a square metre. Many of them are so specialised that they can be found only in chalk grassland where they are specially adapted to the thin, infertile but base-rich soils. Characteristic features of the habitat often include ant-hills and, on steep slopes, terracettes or sheep walks. Small patches of scrub add to the habitat diversity by providing bird-nesting habitat and song-posts.

The UK holds around 50% of the world’s surviving chalk grassland with major concentrations on the North and South Downs of south-east England. Formerly widespread in these areas, an estimated 80% had disappeared by WWII and only 1% of the Surrey Hills has remnant chalk grassland cover.

What can be done to benefit the Bee orchid?

Good management for this species will create/result in:

Chalk grassland with a high diversity of wildflowers and their associated insects

This will benefit a wide range of other specialist chalk grassland plants including other vetches such as kidney vetch, orchids such as bee orchid and pyramidal orchid, salad burnet, wild marjoram, dropwort, small scabious and many others. It will also benefit associated insects in particular, chalkhill blue and Adonis blue butterflies, for both of which it is the caterpillar foodplant.

Opportunities to create/improve/extend suitable habitat for this species include:

Grazing by hardy livestock breeds to control scrub and dominant grasses
Clearing scrub and controlling its regrowth
Controlling invasive species such as tor grass, stinging nettle, creeping thistle and common ragwort
Protection from nutrient enrichment by fertilisation or agricultural spray drift.

Creating and managing areas for the Bee orchid will help deliver the following benefits to communities:

Clean water
Clean air
Protection from and mitigation of environmental hazards
Mitigation of and adaptation to climate change
Thriving plants and wildlife
Beauty, heritage and engagement

These illustrations are by an artist taking part in a programme delivered by Watts Gallery Trust and funded by the Michael Varah Memorial Fund. This series of 30 Surrey Hills Indicator Species were commissioned by Surrey Hills Society and funded by Surrey Hills Trust Fund as part of the Making Space for Nature Exhibition.