There is, surely, no European orchid that carries with it such a mythical reputation as the Ghost Orchid Epipogium aphyllum. Here today, gone for decades in the impoverished woodlands of England, it's a phantom that eludes many British orchid-hunters to this day.
Here at Mariposa we're blessed to have the very best ghost-hunter in the business as a core member of our guiding team - Dr Richard Bate is the man who found the last known British example of Ghost Orchid, at a top secret location in August 2024. Quite simply, nobody is better placed to find the orchid wraith than Richard. If he can find one in what's left of Britain's beleaguered habitat, the richly biodiverse and unspoilt woodlands of Europe pose little problem to him, and during the past few years he's made periodic successful forays in search of the Ghost.
In August 2025, accompanied by Orchid Summer author and Mariposa co-founder Jon Dunn, Richard was back in the French Alps. Our Summer Orchids of the French Alps tour has been planned carefully on the basis of several recconaissance trips in the area, of which this most recent recce was the final piece of the jigsaw. While one can never one hundred percent guarantee a Ghost Orchid, we're quietly confident that this tour offers the very best opportunity for our guests to see this mythical wildflower for themselves.
But that's not all. The French Alps in late July and early August boast a special suite of further alpine specialist orchids that this tour targets - two vanilla orchids, Gymnadenia corneliana and G. rhellicani; the stately Globe Orchid Traunsteinera globosa; the challenging enigma that's Alpine Dwarf Orchid Chamorchis alpina; and the mountain marsh-orchid Dactylorhiza alpestris.
Heading up into altitude means we can travel back in plant-time this week, and encounter a range of orchid species that are long-finished flowering back home - the likes of Burnt Orchid Neotinea ustulata, Frog Orchid Dactylorhiza viridis, Dark-red Epipactis atrorubens and Broad-leaved Helleborine Epipactis helleborine, and Creeping Lady's-tresses Goodyera repens. This tour offers orchid enthusiasts a chance for one last big celebratory hurrah of the orchid season. And as a further cherry on the cake, at lower elevations in the Rhône Valley, we will search for the highly localised Epipactis albensis, a species precious few orchid enthusiasts have enjoyed seeing.
Spending time in the French Alps at this time of year also means, inevitably, that we'll be bumping into some other fine wildlife besides orchids. The alpine wildflowers as a whole are utterfly beguiling, a rich tapestry of shapes, colours and forms, with abundant gentians, saxifrages, toadflax, Ranunculus, and ferns to name but a few. Alpine Chough and Marmot will be a constant soundtrack in the background, while we've a chance to bump into Chamois and Ibex too. And that's not to mention the butterflies - having the likes of Small Apollo, Mountain Fritillary, Damon Blue, and Marbled and Western Brassy Ringlet in flight around us in good numbers is something of a pleasant distraction, to say the least. And that's before we mention the landscape itself - even by the standards of the Alps, the areas we explore are particularly picturesque.
Small wonder the Ghost Orchids choose to haunt this wonderful region of France! And little wonder we're going there too.
