Cypripedium calceolus var. parviflorum 

 Small Yellow Lady's Slipper 



Classification 



1. Family: Orchidaceae (Orchid Family). The Orchid Family is perhaps the largest family 

 of vascular plants, with over 15,000 species worldwide (Cronquist 1988). Most of these 

 species are in the tropics. Sometimes the genus Cypripedium is segregated from the 

 orchid family and placed in the Cypripediaceae (Correll 1950, Weber and Wittmann 

 1992). 



2. Genus: Cypripedium . the lady's slippers, is a genus of about 50 species native to North 

 America and Eurasia (Correll 1950). 



3. Species and Variety: Yellow lady's slippers in Montana have traditionally been treated 

 as Cypripedium calceolus L. var. parviflorum Salisb., as presented in Flora of the Pacific 

 Northwest (Hitchcock and Cronquist 1976) and this name will be used throughout this 

 report. However, the taxonomy of our plants is uncertain and changes in accepted names 

 seem likely. Dr. Charles Sheviak, who is currently working with yellow lady's slippers, 

 considers North American plants distinct from European C. calceolus at the species level 

 (Sheviak 1992). Under this taxonomic treatment American plants are called £L 

 parviflorum Salisb.. It is uncertain what varieties are present in Montana. Correll (1950) 

 considered C. calceolus in North America to consist of one polymorphic variety, 

 Cypripedium calceolus L. var. pubescens (Willd.) Correll, but his book includes a 

 discussion of ecological "varieties" including a northern "var." parviflorum which is, like 

 Montana plants, adapted to calcareous wetlands. Luer (1976) recognizes C calceolus var. 

 parviflorum but does not show a western distribution for it, instead showing a 

 northwestern Montana distribution for C calceolus var. pubescens . Sheviak (1 994) 

 contends that C parviflorum var. parviflorum is a southeastern woodland taxon. He 

 thinks (Sheviak pers. commun.) that Montana yellow lady's slippers include C 

 parviflorum var. pubescens (Sheviak 1995), the small flowered C parviflorum var. 

 makasin (Sheviak 1993), and C X columbianum . a hybrid between C. parviflorum and C 

 montanum (Sheviak 1992). Specimens from the KNF sent to Sheviak for identification 

 have not been received back as of this writing. Montana specimens at the University of 

 Montana (MONTU) and Montana State University (MONT) are also in need of 

 annotation to variety. Resolution of the taxonomy of Montana yellow lady's slippers is 

 important for considering state and global ranks as well as U.S. Forest Service status. 



B. Present legal or other formal status 



1. Federal 



a. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service: none 



b. U.S. Forest Service: Sensitive in Region 1 (U.S. Forest Service 1994). 



2. State: The Montana Natural Heritage Program ranks the variety G5Q and S2S3 (Heidel 

 1995). This signifies that it is demonstrably secure globally although there are taxonomic 

 questions which need to be resolved, but is vulnerable to very vulnerable to extinction in 

 Montana. 



