Diario de ronaldhanko

Cypripedium californicum, the California Lady’s Slipper, is found only in northern California and southern Oregon and only in serpentine soils that have a high concentration of heavy metals. Where it grows it can be quite abundant and is often found with the carnivorous Cobra Lily, Darlingtonia californica and another orchid, Platanthera sparsiflora, the Few-flowered Bog Orchis. It is the tallest Lady’s Slipper in the USA, as tall as 120 cm (4 feet) and has more flowers than any of the others, as many as twenty per stem. It grows in wet areas and the flower color varies from brownish green to yellow-green. The lip is always white but can be pink around the opening of the lip, as evident in one of the photos.

Cypripedium parviflorum, the Yellow Lady’s Slipper, becomes more common as one moves further north. It is very rare in California, Oregon and Washington and very common in northern British Columbia. We have seen it there by the thousands. It is variable in height. The plants growing in strong sunlight are less than 30 cm (1 foot) and those in more shaded areas reaching 60 cm (2 feet). The lip is usually an intense yellow and the petals and sepals can be a very dark mahogany or a paler green more or less marked with mahogany. This species almost always has a single flower but occasionally has two or three. This species has three named varieties, var. pubescens, var. makasin and var. exiliens. The flowers of the variety makasin are very tiny, the sepals and petals usually very dark in color, and the flowers have a very strong scent. The chief difference, however, is the hairiness of the bract behind the flower, very hairy in var. pubescens and almost smooth in var. makasin. The two varieties are very difficult to distinguish in the wild, however, and most do not even try to distinguish them.

Cypripedium xcolumbianum, as the “x” suggests, is a natural hybrid of Cyp. parviflorum and Cyp. montanum and is known only from Washington and British Columbia, where it can be quite common. In plant and flower size and flower form it resembles its parents, but the color of the lip is distinctive, neither the white lip of Cypripedium montanum nor the yellow lip of Cypripedium parviflorum, but off-white to cream. Its sepals and petals are greenish, more or less marked with mahogany, but it is in that respect no different from the parents. When we’ve found it, it has been growing with Cyp. montanum or with both parents.

Cypripedium passerinum is known either as Sparrow’s-egg Lady’s Slipper or as Franklin’s Lady’s Slipper. This species is not found south of Canadian border except in Montana. The flowers seem small for the plant in this species, the plants up to 50 cm (nearly 2 feet) tall and the single flowers only a few centimeters in size. The flowers do not open widely with the dorsal sepal often nearly hiding the opening of the lip. The very large staminode nearly fills the opening of the lip. The lip is usually white, rarely off-white and is dotted on the inside with purple. When we have found this it is always growing in damp areas in open woodlands, often with Cypripedium parviflorum.

Known as the Brownie or Clustered Lady's Slipper, Cypripedium fasciculatum is found in the northwestern United States, California, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Colorado and Utah. It is not common in any part of its range but is often hard to find because of its low profile and small flowers. It grows usually in rather heavily forested areas.

Its leaves are opposite, plate-like and round, two to a stem. The plant is around 25 cm tall, often less than that. The flowers form a dropping cluster of two to four just above the leaves. They are a dull mahogany or green or greenish-yellow marked with mahogany. The lip is similarly colored. There are two named forms, fma. purpureum, a uniform dark mahogany, and fma. viride, a clear green.

Cypripedium fgasciculatum is the least showy of our native Slippers, but charming nonetheless. Its conservation status is listed as apparently secure.

Cypripedium montanum, the Mountain Lady's Slipper is well named, usually growing at higher elevations. Its range is limited to the northwest, California, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana, California, British Columbia and Alberta. It usually grows under light canopy or at the edges of the canopy, though we have seen it growing in full sun.

The color of its sepals and petals varies from dark mahogany to greenish with mahogany markings. The pouch is always white but often has a red-purple blush around the opening and deep reddish-purple veins inside the pouch that show through to the outside (fma. welchii) and occasionally one finds an albino form that is pure green and white (fma. praetertinctum).

There is one natural hybrid of Cypripediium montanum with Cypripedium parviflorum, the Columbia Hybrid Lady's Slipper, Cyp. x columbianum. The color of the pouch ranges from off white to a pale yellow, neither the white pouch of Cyp.montanum nor the bright yellow pouch of Cyp. parviflorum. It is fairly common and often mistaken for a pale Cyp. parviflorum.