Lady's Slipper

lady's slipper

Lady's slipper (Cypripedium)

(credit: Grant Heilman)

Any member of several genera of orchids in which the lip of the flower is slipper-shaped. The genus Cypripedium has about 50 temperate and subtropical species. Two well-known species, the yellow lady's slipper (C. calceolus) and the pink lady's slipper, or moccasin flower (C. acaule), are found in temperate coniferous woods in early spring. Other genera include Phragmipedium and Selenipedium of the New World tropics, and the tropical Asian Paphiopedilum. Many hybrids have been developed.

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Lady’s Slipper 

(Cypripedium), also Venus’ slipper, a genus of perennial grassy plants of the orchid family. The blossoms are large and varicolored. One of the leaflets of the perianth has a peculiar, inflated shape somewhat resembling a slipper (hence the name). There are approximately 50 species in the temperate zones of North America, Europe, and Asia. There are four species in the USSR. The true lady’s slipper (C. calceolus), the large-blossomed lady’s slipper (C. macranthon), and the spotted lady’s slipper (C. guttatum) grow in the European USSR and in Siberia; the Yatabe lady’s slipper (C. yatabeanum), on Kamchatka and in the Far East. Several species of lady’s slipper are cultivated in gardens as decorative plants; tropical orchids of the genera Paphiopedilum and Phragmopedilum which are cultivated in hothouses are also known as lady’s slippers.

S. S. MORSHCHIKHINA