The rare "Yorkshire primrose" is at the heart of a £350,000 conservation drive in the Dales, funded through the government’s record £60 million push to restore England’s wildlife.
Yorkshire Dales Millennium Trust (YDMT) will oversee a three-year project to enhance floral diversity at 60 sites across the Dales.
The initiative is part of Natural England’s Species Recovery Programme, which is funded through the government’s Wild Again: Restoring England’s Wildlife scheme.
Ellen Milner, Hay Time project manager at YDMT, said: "This is an exciting opportunity to work with some of our rarest species, which need targeted conservation actions to help their populations recover.
"We’ll be undertaking research and survey work to increase our understanding of the habitat requirements of these three species.
"This will be followed by practical actions such as bolstering populations to allow us to make significant contributions to secure their future in the Yorkshire Dales and Forest of Bowland."
The new funding will help conserve and restore key habitats at 60 sites across the Dales.
Much of the work will focus on supporting the bird’s-eye primrose, known locally as the "Yorkshire primrose", which grows mainly in damp meadows and boggy grassland in limestone areas.
The delicate pink flower, found mostly in northern England from Skipton to Durham and northern Cumbria, blooms between May and June and is considered an indicator of healthy, species-rich grasslands.
It is joined by other priority species such as the date waxcap mushroom and the barred tooth-striped moth.
YDMT’s long-running Hay Time project has restored more than 800 hectares of wildflower meadows in the Dales over the past 20 years.
With the help of this new grant, the trust will expand its restoration work throughout the national park to improve habitat for these rare species.
Tony Lund, partnership manager at Forest of Bowland National Landscape, welcomed the funding.
Mr Lund said: "We are delighted to see Yorkshire Dales Millennium Trust secure this significant investment, which will help protect and restore some of our most valuable species-rich grasslands.
"We value our long-standing partnership with YDMT and look forward to continuing our work together to enhance biodiversity, strengthen habitat networks and deliver lasting benefits for nature across the Yorkshire Dales and Forest of Bowland landscapes."
Government-backed projects like this aim to balance nature recovery with food production by supporting farmers in creating pollinator-friendly environments that can also boost crop yields.
In total, the Species Recovery Programme will direct £60 million into 130 projects benefiting 364 threatened species.
Natural England chair Tony Juniper said: "For decades Natural England's vital species recovery work has revealed how even the rarest of the rare can be brought back from the brink.
"The red kite, lady's slipper orchid, pool frog, beaver and large blue butterfly are among examples that demonstrate what can be achieved for nature and wider society.
"We know that good science and effective partnerships can help restore species to favourable status, and this funding will enable us to support many initiatives to help halt and reverse the decline of our wonderful wildlife."
Over the past three decades the programme has helped protect over 1,000 species and prevented the national extinction of at least 35 species.
Yorkshire Dales Millennium Trust said it plans to use the funding to recruit an additional member of staff to manage the new project.
This latest round of funding comes as part of broader government efforts to meet biodiversity targets set out in the Environmental Improvement Plan, which commits to halting the decline in species abundance by 2030 and lowering species extinction risk by 2042.
The investment is also accompanied by the creation of three new national forests and approval of the first wild beaver releases since they were hunted to extinction around 400 years ago.
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