NAPLES, Fla. — Despite its splendor, the ghost orchid may pale in comparison to the aura that surrounds it.

The endangered plant has its own paparazzi, is coveted by collectors and has been extolled in a best-selling book ("The Orchid Thief") and a popular movie ("Adaptation"). Famous photographers and naturalists focus on capturing its fleeting image.

The ghost blooms in June, July and August, and then it's gone. Sightings of the flower and its pale, droopy petals are rare, mostly claimed by hardy souls driven to navigating the swampy wilds of the Fakahatchee Strand, an 85,000-acre linear state preserve in the Everglades.

So the news that a ghost orchid in full flower is perched 60 feet high in a bald cypress tree just 150 feet off the boardwalk at the National Audubon Society's Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary in Collier County, Fla., is nothing short of amazing to those who have seen them and those who have sought them.

"It blows away anything I ever heard of," said Mike Owen, a park ranger who has spent nearly 14 years monitoring and researching the rare plants. "It's giant, with eight or nine blossoms." A 10th bud will probably flower soon, he said.

It's normally a big deal to see a plant with just three blossoms, said Owen, who works at the preserve, where he predicts there will be up to 27 ghost orchid blooms this year on 20 plants.

Ghost orchids bloom for about two weeks, sanctuary officials said, although they aren't certain how long this one has been blooming.

Part of the reason for this ghost orchid's record height and size is that "I think it's a super-healthy, really robust plant," Owen said. "It's probably 30 years old. I mean, this is no spring chicken. It's been around."

Corkscrew's ghost orchid was discovered Saturday by two visitors who were looking for owls and just happened to look in the right place.

Spotting an orchid from 156 feet through a confusion of vegetation in dappled light is a little like spotting a needle in the proverbial haystack.

"There's a lot to be said for skill, knowledge and equipment," said Corkscrew volunteer Dick Brewer. "But when you come down to it, luck's what really matters. It makes you wonder how many other things are growing up there that nobody sees."

Corkscrew manager Ed Carlson said the plant may well be decades old. The bald cypress on which it grows is about 400 to 500 years old.

"We've just never seen (the ghost orchid) before. I'm sure it's been blooming, but they bloom in June and July, and that's when cypress are leafed out," he said. "So, it's possible a cypress branch covered it up all those years and fell off in Hurricane Wilma (in 2005). Who knows?"

When photographer Ralph Arwood of Naples heard about it, he hustled to the sanctuary to spend two hours sweltering in the humid, mosquito-rich cypress strand waiting for the right light to shoot the orchid.

"They're very rare, and this one is unusual because it has so many flowers," Arwood said. "They're pretty impressive flowers, too, as big as your hand."

Part of the lure is that the orchid is simply a fascinating species of plant, Owen said. The ghost has no leaves. "All it is, is a mass of roots with chlorophyll," he said. "The shape of it is very seductive and sensitive. They look like a leaping frog or ballet dancer bouncing in the wind and rain."

Ghost orchids are on Florida's list of imperiled species, and its two biggest threats are habitat loss and poaching. On top of that, collecting wild orchids of any sort is illegal. Rangers and park workers are happy that this ghost orchid is so far away from would-be poachers.

"Just about every time we've had a pretty orchid within arm's reach of the boardwalk, it's been swiped," sanctuary resource manager Mike Knight said.

RARE PLANT HAS ELUDED A BEST-SELLING AUTHOR

Susan Orlean began researching her book "The Orchid Thief" in 1994, but to this day has never seen a blooming ghost orchid.

The discovery of a massive ghost orchid found last weekend in Corkscrew Swamp near Naples, Fla., then, is ironic, since Orlean spent hours tromping through the innards of the Fakahatchee Strand and the swamp in her search.

"That's very neat — I'm surprised, to say the least," said Orlean, whose best-selling book on the plant was published in 1998.

Now it seems almost better that she wasn't able to glimpse the flower, she said: "The book became an explanation of desire ... It's something you often can't obtain."

The search for the ghost orchid is a central theme in the book, which detailed the exploits of John Laroche of Naples, a real-life thief of orchids, including the elusive ghost.

Laroche poached 84 orchids, including at least three ghost orchids, from the Fakahatchee on Dec. 21, 1993. Owen returned the ghost orchids to the swamp and the next June, one bloomed, marking the first time he saw a ghost orchid in full flower.

Clyde Butcher, internationally known black-and-white photographer of the Everglades, went into the Fakahatchee in 1999 and came out with his now famous photo of a solitary ghost orchid bloom.

He suggested that Orlean's book and his photograph heightened interest in the once-obscure ghost orchid. "More people are searching for it now," he said.

— Mary Wozniak