Nature · Wildflowers & flowers

Ghost orchid

Native · flowers rarely, late summer · deep leaf litter of beech and oak woods; Critically Endangered

Epipogium aphyllum — Orchidaceae

The ghost orchid is Britain's most elusive plant: a pale, leafless, translucent orchid with no chlorophyll that lives almost entirely underground, feeding through a fungus, and appears above ground only very rarely and for a few days. It was declared extinct in Britain in 2009, and a single plant was found a week later. It was not seen again for fifteen years, until Richard Bate found one in August 2024, at a site kept secret.

How to spot them

▸Pale, waxy, translucent stem in cream, yellowish and pinkish tones, with no green leaf at all
▸A few nodding flowers, cream with pinkish-purple markings, with a swollen, hooded lip held uppermost
▸Grows out of thick, deep leaf litter in shaded woodland, on beech in the Chilterns and on oak on clay in the Herefordshire-Shropshire border
▸Almost impossible to find: it may spend years underground and show for only a few days
▸Extremely rare: even the finds of a single plant are announced by the BSBI

How to know it

A pale, leafless, translucent plant that lives almost entirely underground and takes its food from fungi, and only occasionally sends up a spike in a dark wood

Ghost orchid — Epipogium aphyllum.

Declared extinct in Britain in 2009, it was found again a week later in Herefordshire

Ghost orchid — the single plant of 2009.

After a fifteen-year gap it was refound in August 2024 by BSBI member and dental surgeon Richard Bate, after some thirty years of searching

Ghost orchid — location kept secret.

It appeared in most years in at least one Chilterns beech wood between 1953 and 1987, but not since

Ghost orchid — BSBI.

Classified as Critically Endangered on the GB Red List and protected on Schedule 8, its species name means 'leafless'

Ghost orchid — aphyllum.

First recorded in Herefordshire in 1854, with flowering recorded only a few dozen times since

Ghost orchid — BSBI.

Quick-fire facts

•Family Orchidaceae; aphyllum means 'leafless', from Greek; obligately mycoheterotrophic, with no chlorophyll, depending wholly on underground fungi (BSBI)
•First recorded in Herefordshire in 1854; flowering has been recorded only a few dozen times in Britain, with runs in the Chilterns (1953–1987, in most years) and Herefordshire-Shropshire (BSBI)
•Plantlife declared it extirpated in 2009, and a single small plant was found in Herefordshire within a week; that stem failed before seed set
•August 2024: BSBI member Richard Bate refound a single spike, the only sighting in 15 years, after around 30 years of searching; the site is kept secret to protect the habitat and the underground parts (BSBI)
•Flowering stems are produced only sporadically and rarely set seed; plants are vulnerable to drought, soil compaction and predation by slugs, snails and even deer (BSBI)
•GB Red List status Critically Endangered; recorded as Rare in Great Britain; not in Ireland or the Channel Islands (BSBI)
•Protected on Schedule 8 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981: it is an offence intentionally to pick, uproot or destroy it. Never dig up or pick any wild orchid, and never disturb the leaf litter of a possible site

Drill it — 7 cards

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Sources

Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland — Ghost Orchid refound
Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland — Epipogium aphyllum Sw. (Ghost Orchid)
legislation.gov.uk — Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, Schedule 8