ORCHIDS grown at a Kidderminster high school are to be sent to the prestigious Eden Project in Cornwall.

Pupils at King Charles I have been called upon to help grow an exotic strain of the colourful flower to add extra authenticity to one of Eden's famed biomes.

The flowers will be cultivated at a laboratory recently converted from an old outhouse at the Birmingham Road school, last year named the first specialist science college in Worcestershire.

The orchids will take about 18 months to grow and will then be displayed in the humid tropics biome, a massive greenhouse-style structure which recreates a tropical environment.

King Charles teacher, Nigel Collins, said: "It is a wonderful chance for the group to become involved in some real scientific research and to have contacts with scientists at the Eden Project.

"The project will also sit well alongside other horticultural projects on offer at the school."

Links were forged with the Eden Project by Kidderminster orchid expert, Phil Seaton.

He said: "The problem is that the Eden Project hasn't got the kind of orchids which grow on the trees and branches, as you would find in a tropical climate.

"What we will do is grow the orchids from seed and then transplant them to the trees at the Eden Project."

Mr Seaton - who travels the world speaking on behalf of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature - said the work would help bring orchids and science to a new audience.

He added: "The children will be getting involved in real conservation. They will be doing some work which is of great value."

Don Murray, the Eden Project's curator, told the Shuttle/Times & News: "I think it is wonderful that the school is helping Phil with his work. What we are trying to achieve is not your normal orchid display but how orchids grow in the wild."

The King Charles project is to go ahead thanks to a grant from the Royal Society to convert a former outhouse, and a donation by Kew Gardens in London of two lamina flow cabinets needed to grow the orchids.

The Eden Project attracted 1.4 million visitors last year.