Orchids

Currently the lady's slipper is no longer in bloom, we will have to wait until next spring to see it.

When they are in bloom you can visit them by going to kilometre 20 of the road from Sallent to Formigal.

Once there, a guard will show you where they are and give you a brief explanation about them, and you can also take photos of them.

Approximate timetable: 8:00 to 21:00-22:00.

No more than 10 people at the same time.

In the municipality of Sallent you can find 35 different varieties of orchids of the 66 species present in the Pyrenees, which means that every spring hundreds of people come to Sallent with the idea of strolling through the meadows and woods in search of orchids.

Among them all, the Lady's Slipper (Cypripedieum calceolus) stands out, a rare orchid that is included in the Catalogue of Threatened Species in Aragon as being in danger of extinction. The population in Sallent is the largest and most important of the 7 known populations in the Pyrenees.

The mountain meadows are especially rich in orchids, there are some areas where during the spring you can find up to 25 different species.

The word orchid comes from the Greek Orchis = testicle, from the shape of the two tubercles of the plants of the genus orchis. Since in ancient times it was thought that plants that resembled a part of the human body were used for something related to it, orchids were attributed with aphrodisiac properties.

Read more about orchids in this brochure.