Featured – Meet the Ladies - North American Orchid Conservation Center

lights – action – camera!

Jen sets the stage for us to meet the ladies!

Photo © Neil Jacobs

The Lady’s Slippers (Cypripedium)

North America is home to twelve species of lady’s slippers (Cypripediums), all of which can only be described as stunning. In eastern North America, the lady’s slippers bloom from mid to late spring. The first lady’s slipper to make an appearance in the woodland forest is Cypripedium parviflorum, the Yellow Lady’s Slipper.

Photo © Jen Modliszewski

Cypripedium parviflorum var. pubescens

The Yellow Lady’s Slipper is a geographically widespread and morphologically variable species. Cypripedium parviflorum var. pubescens, the Large Lady's Slipper, is the tallest and largest-flowered variety, often found on sloped hillsides growing in the dappled forest light.

Photo © Jen Modliszewski

Cypripedium parviflorum var. parviflorum

The Small Yellow Lady’s Slipper is another recognized variety of Cypripedium parviflorum. An easy rule of thumb in distinguishing this variety from the Large Yellow Lady’s Slipper is that the flowers of the Small Yellow Lady’s Slipper are not much larger than the size of one’s thumb! Other varieties of Cypripedium parviflorum include var. makasin, which has small flowers sweetly scented and is generally found in the mid-western US and var. exiliens, restricted to northern Alaska and northwest Canada where it is considered rare and imperiled.

Photo © Jen Modliszewski

Yellow Lady’s Slippers in Newfoundland

In Newfoundland, many orchids seen in the contiguous United States take on a dwarfed appearance. These Yellow Lady's Slippers are almost unimaginably tiny – not exceeding 4"! Outside of Newfoundland, they can grow to at least 3 feet tall. The reduced height of plants in Newfoundland is likely due to the fact that they grow in exposed, sparsely vegetated heaths of limestone barrens on the coast, where sustained winds can easily surpass 40 knots (46 mph).

Photo © Jen Modliszewski

Cypripedium candidum

Unlike the lady’s slippers found in eastern North America, the mid-western

Cypripedium candidum

(Small White Lady’s Slipper) prefers wet open prairies and fens, where its snow-white pouch glistens in the sun.

Photo © Jen Modliszewski

Cypripedium × andrewsii

Hybrids between Cypripedium candidum and Cypripedium parviflorum are known as Cypripedium × andrewsii (Andrew’s Hybrid Lady’s Slipper). This creamy-yellow pouched lady’s slipper was in a damp, shaded woods adjacent to the prairie, and is likely a hybrid between C. candidum and C. parviflorum var. pubescens. The increased size of the pouch and expansion of leaves prior to flowering are diagnostic features of C. parviflorum var. pubescens.

Photo © Jen Modliszewski

Andrew’s Hybrid Lady’s Slipper

Although the morphological complexity of this hybrid species may lead to taxonomic nightmares, the variation in pouch color, flower size, and spotting are a botanist’s (and photographer’s) delight. Most first generation hybrids of Cypripedium × andrewsii have a pale yellow pouch, reflecting a mixture of their C. parviflorum and C. candidum parentage. This Andrew’s Hybrid Lady’s Slipper is possibly a later generation hybrid, given the lack of yellow coloration on the pouch.

Photo © Jen Modliszewski

Pink Lady’s Slippers en masse

Growing in acidic pine woods, Cypripedium acaule (Pink Lady’s Slipper) is perhaps the most often encountered lady slipper. Populations can consist of a small number of individuals (<20) or may be found in the hundreds to even thousands, as seen at this captivating site in West Virginia.

Photo © Jen Modliszewski

Cypripedium acaule forma albiflorum

In large populations, the rare white form of pink lady’s slipper may be found. It can hybridize with the common dark pink form, resulting in an array of color forms in the progeny.

Cypripedium kentuckiense (Kentucky Lady’s Slipper)

With the largest flowers of any lady’s slipper in North America, Cypripedium kentuckiense is indeed a stately species. Most populations of Cypripedium kentuckiense can be found on the floodplains of woodland streams either on the Cumberland Plateau of Kentucky and Tennessee or in Arkansas and neighboring states.

Cypripedium kentuckiense

A geographically disjunct and genetically distinct population has also been found in a forest streambed on the Chesapeake Bay in Virginia. These orchids were blooming on the day of the Kentucky Derby no less!

The Queen of Lady’s Slippers

The specific epithet for Cypripedium reginae (Showy Lady’s Slipper) translates from Latin to “queen”, an apt name given the magnificence of this orchid. Here, we were lucky to reach this site in time to catch the morning light gracefully highlighting the velvety appearance of the pouch, which can vary from deep to pale magenta. The Queen’s reign marks the end of the flowering season of lady’s slippers in forests and fens in eastern North America.

JEN MODLISZEWSKI, PHOTOGRAPHER

Photo ©Neil Jacobs

Just in time for Women's History Month, photographer Jen Modliszewski invites us to celebrate those femme fatales of the orchid family – the lady’s slippers.
First Lady Abigail Adams counseled her husband to "...remember the ladies and be more generous and favorable to them than your ancestors.” Two hundred years later, the echo of Abigail’s words rings true as NAOCC continues our mission to conserve our orchid heritage.
Jen Modliszewski from Warrenton, Virginia, is an avid photographer whose passion for plants was nurtured in the shaded forests of the Blue Ridge Mountains. In 2005, she and her husband, Neil Jacobs, began their quest to document the native orchids of the Carolinas. Jen prefers macro photography – “the splendor of most native orchids is difficult to appreciate with an unaided eye.” Jen obtained her B.S. and M.S. degrees from North Carolina State University in botany and horticulture. She continued her studies at Duke University and earned her Ph.D. investigating the effects of polyploidy (the condition where an organism possesses more than two complete sets of chromosomes) on evolution in the shy monkey flower, (Mimulus sookensis). Currently, she is a postdoctoral researcher at UNC-Chapel Hill, studying the molecular mechanisms of cell division necessary for sexual reproduction in the mouse ear cress, (Arabidopsis thaliana).

Featured – Meet the Ladies

lights – action – camera!

The Lady’s Slippers (Cypripedium)

Cypripedium parviflorum var. pubescens

Cypripedium parviflorum var. parviflorum

Yellow Lady’s Slippers in Newfoundland

Cypripedium candidum

Cypripedium candidum

Cypripedium × andrewsii

Andrew’s Hybrid Lady’s Slipper

Pink Lady’s Slippers en masse

Cypripedium acaule forma albiflorum

Cypripedium kentuckiense (Kentucky Lady’s Slipper)

Cypripedium kentuckiense

The Queen of Lady’s Slippers

JEN MODLISZEWSKI, PHOTOGRAPHER

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