Picking wild flowers has been given the go-ahead by the UK’s largest conservation charity, sparking a row with beekeepers who claim the action could damage the countryside.

Plantlife UK has announced their campaign, Great British Wildflower Hunt, in a bid to get children more involved in nature after fears that youngsters are no longer interested in local wildlife.

The charity has released a new Code of Conduct instructing people of when it’s okay to pick wild flowers, but the move has been called flat out “wrong” by beekeepers who fear the change will cause confusion and risk people digging up plants rather than picking a handful.

Plantlife chief executive Marian Spain told BBC Radio 4: “We understand that that might sound a little bit unusual from a conservation charity, we work very hard to save flowers and keep them growing, but actually wild flowers are quite resilient and picking one or two from a big patch won’t actually harm that population.

“We’ve published a list of 12 that are very common and very easy to recognise and also a Code of Conduct on what to do and we understand one of the reasons we are publishing this is because people are going to ask us, they are confused and they don’t know and we think it is important that children do have contact with nature.”