Yorkshire Water, alongside scientists from the Environment Agency, is embarking on a project to save a rare and endangered plant species - the greater water parsnip - before it disappears from the north of England altogether.

The plant has been in rapid decline over the last forty years and is now only regularly found in two areas in the north of England - the national nature reserve in the Lower Derwent Valley south of York and at Hornsea Mere, east of Beverley.

Now a reintroduction programme will see over 200 greater water parsnips planted at Yorkshire Water's Tophill Low nature reserve, near Driffield.

The first phase of the project, which saw 100 greater water parsnips introduced to the reserve, was successfully completed back in October 2009.  Despite a harsh winter - not ideal for parsnips - the plants are doing well, and the second phase of planting - which will see a further 150 parsnips introduced to the reserve.

The reintroduction is being done as part of the UK's Biodiversity Action Plan, which aims to reverse the UK’s long history of biodiversity loss and decline.

The greater water parsnip is found in wet ditches and marshes, growing in shallow, still or slow moving water. The decline of the species has largely been due to habitat degradation from past land drainage, prolonged livestock grazing and poor management of watercourses.