Cephalanthere rouge

Cephalanthera rubra is especially threatened due to habitat loss and lack of woodland management, neglect leading to problems of excessive shading or too much light, and poor seed-set caused presumably by a lack of suitable pollinating insects, but also perhaps due to the purported intrinsic partial fertility of the species. Further threats are posed by forest fires, deforestation for building and construction work purposes as well as plant collection (Newman et al. 2007, Lang 2004, Harrap and Harrap 2009, Delforge 1995, Vakhrameeva et al. 2008).

All orchid species are included under Annex B of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). This species is listed on various national red lists with varying degrees of threat:

• Critically Endangered in Finland (Rassi et al. 2010) and UK (Cheffings and Farrell 2005)
  
• Endangered in Czech Republic (Holub and Procházka 2000) and Norway (Artsdatabanken 2010)
  
• Vulnerable in Belarus (Ermakova 2005), Cyprus (Tsintides et al. 2007), Luxembourg (Colling 2005) and Sweden (Gärdenfors 2010)
  
• Near Threatened in Croatia (Nikolić and Topić 2005)
  
• Least Concern in France (UICN France et al. 2010), Germany (Ludwig and Schnittler 1996), Hungary (Király 2007) and Switzerland (Moser et al. 2002)
  

Cephalanthera rubra can be protected by;

• Management and protection of the species natural habitats by a reduction in canopy to let more light in and keeping the glades relatively small as the species required a degree of shade.
• Carry out control of the ground flora, particularly where a dense layer of herbs has developed and strimming when the flowers have seeded.
• Hand pollination as natural pollination remains very restricted.
• Light grazing (preferably with cattle) over the winter can be useful to create areas of bare ground for germination.
• Protection of the living individuals through legislation that bans the species from being picked or dug up.
• Ex situ conservation: Artificial propagation, re-introduction, seed collections.
• Monitoring the existing populations and sites.
• Estimate the population size and study their dynamics (Newman et al. 2007, Lang 2004, Harrap and Harrap 2009, Delforge 1995, Vakhrameeva et al. 2008).