Wild Orchids
in the Algarve
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The Lot Valley, southern France

The Lot Valley near Cajarc

For anyone interested in wildflowers, and wild orchids in particular, the Lot Valley and adjacent Cele Valley in France must feature high on the list of must-visit destinations. The valleys are situated in the Department of The Lot, southern France, between the beautiful old towns of Cahors and Figeac, with many other picturesque and ancient villages lying beside the Lot and Cele rivers as they pass through an outstanding landscape of fields, woods and cliffs.

Apart from the wildflowers the area is renowned for its prolific birdlife, butterflies and other insects. It is truly a naturalist’s paradise. The limestone bedrock of this area is one of the reasons for the diversity of flora, but add the clement weather found so far south in Europe and the fact that traditional rather than intensive agricultural methods are used and you have the perfect conditions for wildflowers to flourish.

Our first visit to the Lot Valley had been long awaited and took place rather later in May than we would have hoped for – the first two weeks would be ideal, but we did not arrive until the towards the end of the month. The weather had been unusually cool and rainy throughout the month. This worked in our favour, and plants that would normally have ceased flowering were still relatively easy to find; indeed, we found twelve orchid species on our campsite on the first day, and this included the only Lady Orchid (Orchis purpurea) that we found during the week - had we been a couple of weeks earlier they would have been plentiful.

We stayed at the peaceful and pretty campsite called Camping du Ruisseau du Treil, run by Mike and Ros Kanter. The campsite is ideally positioned for visiting many of the villages in the area as well for walking through the lovely surrounding countryside. Telephone:00 33 (0)565 312 339 Email link...

Military orchid, Lot Valley, May 2008

Even without a guide it is not difficult to find many of the wildflowers, including orchid species for which the area is famous; but, in order to get the very best out of our visit, we decided to arrange an afternoon of guided botanising. This was great fun and enabled us to find some of the more elusive species that we would certainly have missed otherwise.

Our guide was Monica Rowland, a thoroughly un-stuffy botanist who has lived in the area for over 10 years. We had a wonderful afternoon and visited the high causse (limestone) areas as well as meadows and woodland. During the afternoon which we found Man Orchid (Aceras anthropophorum), Military Orchid (Orchis militaris), Woodcock orchid (Ophrys scolopax), Fly Orchid (Ophrys insectifera), Red Helleborine (Cephalanthera rubra) and Sword-leaved Helleborine (Cephalanthera longifolia) to name just a few. Had we been slightly earlier, Monica said, it is relatively easy to find up to 20 different orchid species during a day of gentle walking and botanising. Email Monica...

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