A RARE orchid blooming in the middle of York's Tang Hall estate sparked a massive operation to save it from destruction.

A fleet of trucks carried 50 tonnes of earth five miles across the city in an effort to save the plant as building work crushed its original habitat.

Now, four years after the earth containing its seeds was brought from the site of Poppleton Business Park to St Nicholas' Fields, the Bee Orchid has rewarded its guardians.

New flowers have been spotted for the first time in the orchid's adopted home.

St Nicholas' Fields' project co-ordinator Gordon Campbell-Thomas said: "I have been checking the site for four years and, I have to admit, I was starting to despair.

"I was overjoyed when I found them. This is a dream come true."

Permission was given to build the business park before planners discovered that the flower, which has the Latin name ophrys apifera, grew there.

The developers, Leeds-based White Rose Development Enterprises, immediately offered to move the plants, along with soil vital for them to flourish, to the Tang Hall reserve.

The Bee Orchid, named after its black and yellow blooms, grows about 10ins high.

It is rare in the north, but thrived in the ideal conditions found on the Poppleton site.

The reserve currently has three flowers, which are now going to seed. Mr Campbell-Thomas expects more next year.

He said: "This is an absolute vindication of the value of St Nicholas' Fields as a site for nature. It is incredible that these rare flowers are growing on what used to be a landfill site."

A spokesman for White Rose Development Enterprises declined to comment on the news.

adam.nichols@ycp.co.uk

PICTURE: FLOWER POWER: Gordon Campbell-Thomas shows the rare Bee Orchid in bloom

Picture: Paul Baker