YELLOW LADY’S SLIPPER
Cypripedium parviflorum
ORCHID FAMILY (Orchidaceae)
Identification
- Flowering time - May, June
- Historical - Planted on FF floodplain but now gone
- Flower with yellow "shoe-shaped pouch"
- Twisted brown "side" petals
- Broad leaves with parallel veins
This native perennial grows up to 2 feet tall. It has broad, lance-shaped leaves which clasp the erect stem. One, sometimes two, flowers occur at the top of the stem. Flowers have 3 highly modified petals. The lower petal forms a yellow, waxy flower pouch up to 2 inches long. The 2 greenish-brown lateral petals are twisted.
Rare and protected; two colonies persist in Fontenelle Forest from unauthorized plantings in 1985. Those plants had been collected in Doniphan County, Kansas. These orchids flower from the middle of May to early June.
After pollinators have entered the inside of the “slipper,” they must exit through a gap, thereby exchanging pollen with the orchid’s reproductive parts. A specimen of this orchid had been collected “near Bellevue” in 1888. Also known as Yellow Moccasin Flower.
The content of NatureSearch is provided by dedicated volunteer Naturalists of Fontenelle Forest who strive to provide the most accurate information available. Contributors of the images retain their copyrights. The point of contact for this page is: Roland Barth.