Cypripedium parviflorum var. makasin - photos and description

Saskatchewan's Wildflowers


Highway ditch, plants with lower lip to 30 mm in length, plant height to 31 cm tall; 15 cm / 6 inch ruler for scale


Wet black spruce forest, plants to 35 cm tall, lip only 20 mm in length; 15 cm / 6 inch ruler for scale

Upright plants with showy, yellow, pouch-like lower lip. Two lateral, twisted petals, one sepal above the pouch, and the two sepals under the pouch are united. Stems are pubescent, leaf margins hairy and also hairy on undersides along the nerves. Leaves are alternate, oval to elliptical, clasp the stem somewhat, we measured them to 12 cm long and 4 cm wide.

Distinguished from Large Yellow Lady's Slipper (Cypripedium parviflorum var. pubescens) chiefly by the size of the lower lip, which in Large Yellow Lady's Slipper is > 30 mm in length, and less than 30 mm for Small Yellow Lady's Slipper. The lateral petals in Large Yellow Lady's Slipper in general are lighter in colour, yellowish-green streaked with brown, and not the dark brown colour often found in Small Yellow Lady's Slipper.

Habitat ranges from moist grassland meadows in the eastern Parklands in Saskatchewan to coniferous bogs in our boreal forest.

Photos taken June 5th in a highway ditch, and June 22nd in mossy, wet black spruce forest in central Saskatchewan.

I get preachy here: please don't dig up native orchids such as Lady's Slippers to try to grow them in your garden. They are becoming rare in the wild due to loss of habitat and wild harvesting. They are difficult to transplant successfully from the wild. If you want to grow them in your garden, there are nurseries who grow native orchids from seed who will sell plants to you.

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