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Plants of the Eloise Butler Wildflower Garden

Common
Name

Scientific
Name

Plant
Family

Garden
Location

Prime
Season
Showy Lady's-slipper
Cypripedium reginae Walter
Orchid (Onagraceae)
Woodland - Bog
Late Spring. Earliest - May 28, 2012; latest June 21st; average - around June 10th.
Other names and notes
One of the jewels of the summer Woodland Garden, this plant is the state flower of Minnesota. Members of the genus Cypripedium have 3 sepals and 3 petals. On this species, the sepals form the the upper and lower hood, all white in color, while two of the petals form the white lateral element and the third petal forms the inflated lip (or pouch,or slipper). The pouch is white, with pinkish tinges and streaked with rose or purple and inside, dotted in the same color. Stems are usually about 2 - 2-1/2 feet high, the slippers about 2" long. The leaves are long ellipticals that clasp the stem, have heavy ribs and are hairy, hence one of the older classifications - Cypripedium hirsutum. Immediately behind the flower is a green bract that looks like a smaller leaf. Eloise Butler wrote: "The greatest prize of the swamp is our state flower, the showy Cypripedium, the pink and white Lady’s-slipper, a member of the orchid family. No flower, wild or cultivated, is more magnificent than this. The plant is the tallest of the genus and has the broadest leaves and the largest and most beautifully tinted flowers, often bearing two on one stalk. Only North American Indian ladies wear slippers of this style, and the precise always call them moccasins. Goddesses, also, must have approved of this kind of footgear, for the scientific name, cypripedium, means Venus’ boskin." Published June 18, 1911, Sunday Minneapolis Tribune
Showy Lady's-slipper
Showy Lady's-slipper
Above and Below: The Showy Lady's-slipper blooms from 2008. Click on the photo for a larger image. Below right: Young shoots before the flower stem develops.
Showy Lady's-slipper Showy Lady's-slipper Showy Lady's-slip[per growing shoot
Below: Earliest blooms in modern times in 2012, opening by May 28 thanks to the very early spring.
Showy Lady's-slipper Showy Lady's-slipper
Historic: Immediately below: A large clump of Showy Lady's-slipper in the Woodland Garden on June 10, 1955. Photo from a Kodachrome slide taken by Martha Crone. Courtesy Minnesota Historical Society, Martha Crone Collection.
Historic Showy Lady's-slipper photo
 
Showy Lady's-slipper
  

Notes: This plant is indigenous to the Garden area. Eloise Butler catalogued it on Sept. 6, 1907. She used the older name of the time, Cypripedium spectabile which has now been reclassified into C. reginae. It also has been brought in many times. Eloise Butler's records show that she obtained plants of this species in 1908 from the source she labels "Indian Mound" (From 1908 onward Eloise uses the old classification Cypripedium hirsutum which has since been reclassified into C. reginae); then in 1909 from a source in Anoka, MN; on July 9, 1912 and June 20, 1913 from the big bog near Lake Minnetonka; and again on June 30, 1917 (2 clumps) from a "meadow off Western Ave" (now Glenwood Ave near Russell); 3 clumps (17 stalks) on July 4, 1917 from a bog off Western Ave. Martha Crone planted specimens in 1936 and 1938. Garden Curator Susan Wilkins has planted it several times, most recently in 2012. It is native to Minnesota from the SE to the NE and NW where there are swamps and bogs.

These plants bloom usually around the a week centering on June 10th. There are a number of clumps of the plant and the bloom time can be slightly different. Lady's-slippers bloom in May, "except the Showy --- which waits until the middle of June to hold the stage alone. To have missed its flowering season in the Garden seems almost to lose part of summer" (Martha Crone). In 2008 the bloom was not until June 15 due to the later spring season. Eloise Butler noted that the bloom was not until June 18th in 1930 and Martha Crone reported June 21st in 1936. It would be rare for a bloom date before June 1st for plants in the Garden, in fact former Gardner Ken Avery recorded that only once in all his years as gardener, in 1977, did the plant bloom in May. However, in 2012 it bloomed on May 28!

For more lore click here- More

Two articles have been published by The Friends on the Showy Lady's-slipper in the Garden. Both are found in the Archive - educational section: Orchids in the Garden by Cary George and Cherishing Orchids, an Eloise Butler Legacy by Susan Wilkins. Garden Curator Susan Wilkins has also provided information on a 2012 rescue mission in Northern Minnesota. (Article)

Former curator Martha Crone wrote of the plant: "The largest and most showy of all our native orchids it is considered the Queen Orchid of America. The pure white sepals and petals, and the white rose-striped lip, spotted with purple on the inside, makes this orchid just as exquisite as that of its tropical relative. The seeds of these orchids are the smallest seeds known, dustlike or microscopic in size. They contain no endosperm. This lack of concentrated food for the use of the germinating seedling makes seed germination extremely difficult. Orchid seeds will not germinate and grow into seedlings unless the fungi mycorrhiza is present in the humus. This explains the rarity of most species and helps us to understand why orchids should be protected from needless destruction." published in the Fringed Gentian™, Vol. 4 #3, July 1956.

  
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References: Plant characteristics are generally from sources 15, 16, 30, 31, 33, W2 & W3. Distribution principally from W2 and also 31, 34 and W1. Planting history generally from 1, 4 & 4a. Other sources by specific reference. See Reference List for details.  
©2008-2012 Friends of the Wild Flower Garden, Inc. All photos are the property of The Friends of the Wild Flower Garden unless otherwise credited. "www.friendsofthewildflowergarden.org" 112612