Almost extinct orchid found growing on London office's rooftop

For the first time ever, a small colony of rare orchids has been discovered growing on the rooftop of an office building in the UK’s capital city, London.

Serapias parviflora is a rare small flower that is usually found in the Mediterranean basin, but the office building of Nomura International has nearly 15 plants growing on the 11th floor.

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The colony, which was earlier found at Rame Head in Cornwall in 1989, had disappeared around 2009 (nearly 20 years later). Experts thought the small-flowered tongue-orchid had become extinct in the UK.

Nomura's London office has a rooftop garden on the 11th floor where experts have been growing a variety of flowers and vegetables for the past 10 years, leading to a population of bees, insects, pollinators and rare birds.

While it is still unclear how the plant grew in the rooftop garden, experts believe the seeds for this almost extinct plant can travel to distances through winds.

"The plants could have originated on the continent and been brought over the Channel on southerly winds which frequently bring Saharan dust deposits to the capital," Nomura's ecologist Mark Patterson said. "Once settled on the Nomura roof, the seeds would have formed a symbiosis with a mycorrhizal fungus enabling them to germinate and grow. Whilst possible, the odds are astronomical."

Nomura also has a programme titled ‘Adopt a bee’ through which employees have weekly visits to the garden and can take part in honey harvesting workshops, filtering and bottling of honey etc.

"Most of the food that we eat, such as vegetables, fruits, nuts, and raw materials such as coffee beans and cacao beans, depend on plants being pollinated by insects, such as bees," a blog post from the company read.