Since 2008, just two plants have are known to have been seen in the UK, one in 2008, just after the plant was declared extinct, and the second and most recent in 2024 by a friend, Richard. Who just happens to be a tour co-leader on this tour.
In mainland Europe, populations of Ghosts are more stable, and so with some knowledge and luck you can see some. But this is 2026, the year of the drought, record temperatures through Spring and into summer. Wildfires are sweeping the continent from the highlands of Scotland, through Suffolk, Kent and onto mainland Europe through France, Spain and Italy.
Europe is burning.
And for Ghosts which like damp, moist ground to grow from, this is a problem, meaning that the still hyper-rare plant will be more elusive for us.
We began the day in a hotel at Lyon Airport. We had slept well thanks to the best air conditioning I have known, so were well rested.
We met with the rest at breakfast, then loaded the car, and they loaded the two vans.
Their first call was to see the epipacticis fibri, and as I had my shots, it was suggested we met at a town in The Alps, we could take our time, have lunch and/or a coffee. So, we programmed the village in, and set off, some two hours drive away.
All on motorways, and in glorious hot sunshine. It was already twenty five at nine in the morning, and even as the roads began to climb, it got warmer and warmer.
As we headed further east, the ground rose, and hills melted into the distance, each layer getting higher and higher.
We turned off the motorway, but continued along a valley, until we reach a large industrial town of Les Chavonnes, from there the road climbed in a proper Le Tour Col de something, into the foothills and crashing through the three thousand feet mark.
We stopped in Bozel, to stretch our legs and to get a drink. It was thirty degrees, the sun beat down in a way that made just standing still sweaty.
We had a cold drink in a cafe, watched the world go by.
A struggle up the hill to the parish church revealed a heavily painted interior, all saints and cherubs. It was most surprising in what seemed like a modest church. We rested in the cool interior until midday when the lights came on and mass was to begin.
We got news of our meeting point, we headed back down the valley, the way we came for ten miles, then turned south up a narrow twisty lane which took us over four thousand feet. It was wooded, heavily shaded.
At a lay by on a long straight road, some thirty miles from Bozel, we found the two buses, and we walked with our friends up into the woods.
In a shaded spot, hundreds of yards from the road was a banks, trees grew at the top, and the bank was covered in moss. Saplings covered much in shade, and in the deepest shade was a single Ghost.
We took turns to snap the small plant, and its three flowers. It was in good condition.And so the quest ended in a wood, miles away from the modern world.
Afterwards we hugged and shook hands with each other, for most this was the first, and probably only time we would see one.
We walked back to the vehicles, then drove an hour to our hotel for the next two nights, me finding the last parking space in the small car park.
It was a chalet style building. Old and full of character, but the demands of the modern world and en-suite rooms meant that each room was small, but ours had a balcony overlooking the town, with the backdrop of the High Alps in the background.
For a leg-stretcher, we went up a high pass to an Alpine meadow which was full of butterflies and plants, so we wandered for a couple of hours, up the waterfall that tumbled down from the high cliffs hundred of metres above.
A small building did drinks, so we stopped for liquid refreshments. I had a 50cl beer, and in the hot late afternoon sunshine, it was delicious.Back to the hotel for a debrief at seven, and then dinner at half past, which took the best part of three hours to complete, but was washed down with more cold beer and a half bottle of Beaujolais.
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