Endangered wild orchids will return to the South Downs thanks to pioneering research being carried out in Sussex.

Plumpton College students have embarked on a long-term project to reintroduce the plants to the county.

Along with experts from the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, they will nurture 2,500 orchids in a controlled environment before replanting them throughout the National Park.

Lecturer Jim Miller described it as an “exciting time” for the college.

He said: “These are cutting-edge techniques.

We are still at an early stage but the results could be very exciting.

“It is also quite a special partnership with the college, Royal Botanic Gardens Kew and Brighton and Hove City Council joining forces.”

The number of wild orchids in the South Downs has fallen drastically during the past 50 years, due to the intensification of farming.

Mr Miller explained they are particularly difficult to grow due to the size of their seed.

The “dust like” seeds blow away in the wind and have been known to make it across the English Channel.

The new project sees college students grow the tiny seeds in a specialist lab in Stanmer Park for the first 18 months to two years of their life.

They are grown alongside special fungi which helps the orchid’s roots gain access to the soil’s nutrients.

When ready, the students take lab-grown orchids and plant them at selected sites around the National Park as well as in Brighton and Hove.

Bosses at the Royal Botanic Gardens have tasked the students with growing 500 of each of the five different types of orchid – the frog orchid, man orchid, heath spotted orchid, bee orchid and musk orchid.