Cypripedium candidum (Small White Lady's Slipper) - photos and description
Clump of 5 flowering stems, along with yellow flowering Hypoxis
hirsuta.
15 cm ruler for scale.
General: Small orchid often growing in dense clumps, native to moist prairies. Considered extirpated from Saskatchewan.
Flowers:
Flowers are solitary,
the lower lip an inflated pouch (slipper), white with purple-red spots.
We measured a slipper at 18 mm long. The lateral petals and sepals are
green with dark brown stripes. The lateral petals are twisted. The
dorsal sepal arches over the slipper, and the lateral sepals are united
together and grow beneath the slipper.
Leaves: Leaves are alternate, cauline, sessile, elliptical to ovate, leaf highlighted in photo above was 8.5 cm long by 2 cm wide (leaf not flattened when measuring width). Leaves are puberulent with glandular hairs.
Height: Budd's Flora lists the height to 25 cm. We measured plants to 25 cm tall, however most plants were much shorter - only 10 to 15 cm in height.
Habitat: Moist meadows.
Abundance: Has been assigned a ranking of S1 (= extremely rare) by the Saskatchewan Conservation Data Centre. The plant was collected in Saskatchewan in 1895 near Indian Head, about 70 km east of our home in Regina, SK.
Origin: Native.
When and where photographed: Photos taken June 6th, moist meadow, tall grass prairie, southern Manitoba.