Cypripedium reginae

Showy lady's Slipper
Conservation status
Apparently Secure (TNC)[1]
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Plantae (unranked): Angiosperms (unranked): Monocots Order: Asparagales Family: Orchidaceae Subfamily: Cypripedioideae Genus: Cypripedium Species: C. reginae
Binomial name
Cypripedium reginae Walter (1788)
Synonyms
Cypripedium album Aiton (1789) Cypripedium spectabile Salisb. (1791) Cypripedium canadense Michx. (1803) Calceolus reginae (Walter) Nieuwl. (1913)

The Showy Lady's Slipper (Cypripedium reginae), also known as the Pink-and-white Lady's Slipper or the Queen's Lady's Slipper, is a rare terrestrial temperate orchid found in northern North America. The plant has probably always been rare and although it produces a large amount of seeds per seed pod, it reproduces largely by vegetative reproduction. (1) Although never common, this rare plant has vanished from much of its historical range due to habitat loss. It has been a subject of horticultural interest for many years with Charles Darwin being one of the people who, unsuccessfully, tried cultivating the plant. The plant became the state flower of Minnesota in 1902, and it became protected by state law in 1925. It is illegal to pick or uproot a showy lady slipper flower in Minnesota. The lady's slipper flower is also the state wildflower of New Hampshire. It thrives in neutral to basic soils and prefers growing in fens. Historically, it was difficult to raise and responded poorly to tissue culture efforts until in the late 1990’s substantial progress was made in axenic culture of the plant from sterile seeds. (1,2,3) Since the plants reproduce vegetatively by rhizomes, they survive indefinitely. They typically flower in late June and early July. Usually, there are one or two flowers per stem, but there can be three or four. The stem has a hairy appearance, and the "hairs" can cause irritation to some people. Although this plant was originally chosen as the provincial flower for Prince Edward Island in 1947, it was so rare on the island that another Lady's Slipper, C. acaule (moccasin flower or pink lady slipper), has replaced it as the province's floral emblem.

Distribution and Conservation

Cypripedium reginae

Cypripedium reginae can be found in Canada from Saskatchewan east to Atlantic Canada, and the eastern United States south to Arkansas and Tennessee.

This flower is quite rare, and is considered imperiled (SRANK S2) or critically imperiled (S1) in Arkansas, Connecticut, Illinois, Iowa, Missouri, New Brunswick, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Newfoundland and Labrador, North Dakota, Nova Scotia, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Prince Edward Island, Saskatchewan, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia. Additionally, it is considered vulnerable (S3) in Indiana, Maine, Manitoba, Massachusetts, New York, Quebec, Vermont, Minnesota, and Wisconsin.

It was historically found in Kentucky and North Carolina, but has not been found recently. The only province to rank C. reginae as apparently secure (S4) is Ontario.

Showy lady's-slipper is quite sensitive to hydrologic disturbances, and is threatened by wetland draining, habitat destruction and horticultural collectors.

See also

• Lady's Slipper

References

1 Selbyana, 18(2): 172-182, 1997

2 Orchids, 139-143, Feb, 1997

3 AAAS Annual Meeting, Programs and Abstracts, 1998

4 NatureServe (2006), "Cypripedium reginae", NatureServe Explorer: An online encyclopedia of life, Version 6.1., Arlington, Virginia

5 Gray's Manual of Botany of the Northern United States, American Book Company, 1889

• Minnesota Secretary of State: State Flower, accessed January 31, 2004
• US Geological Survey: Showy Lady Slipper, accessed January 31, 2004
• Showy Lady's-slipper: Queen Lady's-slipper(botany.wisc.edu), accessed Nov 19, 2005
• NRCS: USDA Plants Profile: Cypripedium reginae