ORCHIS FAMILY ORCHIDACEAE 
MOCCASIN FLOWER. STEMLESS LADY’S SLIPPER 
Cypripedium acaule Ait. 
This handsome and delightfully fragrant Orchid was formerly 
common but is now very rare. It grows in dry sandy or rocky 
woods from Newfoundland to Manitoba and south to North 
Carolina and Tennes- 
see, and blooms in 
May and June. 
It has fleshy fib- 
rous roots, 2 basal 
leaves and a rather 
stout, 1-flowered 
stalk 6-15 inches high. 
Stem and leaves are 
glandular hairy. 
The sepals and 
lateral petals are 
greenish purple, whereas the large in- 
flated saclike lip is a beautiful pink 
with darker veins. The lip is nearly 
closed and must be forced open by 
insects in gathering nectar. The 
pollen is granular. 
The Larger Yellow Lady’s Slipper, 
Cypripedium parvifiorum Salisb. var. 
pubescens (Willd.) Knight, grows in 
voods or inswampy or boggy places. It isa larger plant, 1-2 feet high, 
nd the stem bears several oval leaves 2-6 inches long and 1-3 inches 
vide. The greenish sepals, striped with purple, are ovate or lance- 
late and longer than the lip, whereas the lateral petals, similarly 
olored and always twisted, are narrower. The lip is a large inflated 
ac with a rounded opening on the upper side. It is pale or golden 
ellow and 1-2 inches long. 
The Smaller Yellow Lady’s Slipper, Cypripedium parviflorum 
alisb., is similar but the petals are reddish brown and the lip, much 
maller than in the larger variety, is very fragrant.g The species is 
ery rare in sandy swamps of the state. 
The Small White Lady’s Slipper, Cypripedium candidum Muhl., 
» a dainty orchid of cool boggy prairies and grows in clumps of 2-20 
r more stems. The moccasin-shaped lip is less than 1 inch long 
nd is white outside and purple striped within. The other petals and 
ne sepals are narrow, elongated, more or less twisted, and spotted 
ith purple. 
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