Cypripedium (Lady-slipper Orchids)

Album

Cypripedium (Lady-slipper Orchids)

Page Type: Album

Image Type(s): Flora

Page By: mrh

Created/Edited: Feb 17, 2007 / Feb 19, 2007

Object ID: 270614

Hits: 3070

Page Score: 88.07% - 15 Votes

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The Most Spectacular Orchid (to me anyway)

Cypripediums - The grandest and most august of the Orchidaceae, one great race which is supreme alike in the open and under cover, deserves full treatment by itself. - Reginald Farrer (1919) in The English Rock Garden.

Cypripediums also called lady's-slippers or moccasin flowers are among the most beautiful and sought after plants on the earth. Records of growing them artificially go back 2,500 years and they have been used medicinally by native peoples in North America and the Far East for centuries. They are characterised by the prominient slipper-shaped lip and their pollination biology was first studied by Charles Darwin. Many species are very rare due to both biological limitations and through over collecting. The lone species found in England has existed as a guarded single plant for over 50 years. The name alludes to Cyprus, the island that was the mythological birthplace of Apohrodite, and pedilum, a shoe or slipper and was first used by Linnaeus in 1737.

There are approximately 45 species worldwide. Most are found in termperate North America and Eurasia. Some can be found as far south as Mexico.

Images

$Pink Lady\'s Slipper$

Pink Lady's Slipper

$Pink Lady\'s Slipper$

Pink Lady's Slipper

Cypripedium calceolous

Cypripedium parviflorum

$Hundreds of lady\'s slippers$

Hundreds of lady's slippers

Showy Ladys-slipper (Cypripedium reginae)

$Lady\'s Slipper$

Lady's Slipper

Rare Tree Orchid

Mountain Lady-slipper (Cypripedium montanum)

Ladyslipper

$Showy Lady\'s-slipper (Cypripedium reginae)$

Showy Lady's-slipper (Cypripedium reginae)

$Pink Lady\'s Slipper (Cypripedium acaule)$

Pink Lady's Slipper (Cypripedium acaule)

Mocassin flower (Cypripedium acaule)

$Showy Lady\'s-slipper (Cypripedium reginae)$

Showy Lady's-slipper (Cypripedium reginae)

$Clustered Lady\'s-slipper (Cypripedium fasciculatum)$

Clustered Lady's-slipper (Cypripedium fasciculatum)

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Comments

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Kerstin

Great album

Voted 10/10

I hope to someday contribute to this album. So far I've never seen a Cypripedium in the wild, though I do have one growing in my garden--C. parviflorum var. parviflorum.

Beautiful photographs.

Posted Feb 18, 2007 6:30 pm


	mrh	Re: Great album
	Hasn't voted	Thanks. I would like to grow some in a garden someday, but haven't had the opportunity to try it yet. If I ever get around to it, I might have some questions for you. Keep looking for a wild one, you'll find it someday. It took me 8 years before I saw my first one.
		Posted Feb 20, 2007 8:52 pm


	lcarreau	Re: Great album
	Voted 10/10	I saw many wild orchids on a recent visit to the Philippines. Please click.
		Posted May 28, 2010 11:50 pm

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