Botany Photo of the Day: Cypripedium montanum

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Feb 8, 2010: Pandanus tectorius
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November 6, 2009 : Cypripedium montanum

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Plant Family / Families: Orchidaceae
Scientific Name and Author: Cypripedium montanum Douglas ex Lindl.
Map Location: via Google Maps
Name Location: Botanie Valley Road, north of Lytton, British Columbia, Canada

These photographs are from my first-ever encounter with Cypripedium montanum, which occurred this past June north of Lytton, British Columbia. I also photographed it a few weeks later northwest of La Grande, Oregon.

Mountain lady's slipper is another native of western North America, with its range extending east as far as south central Montana and north central Wyoming. Curiously, despite its main range extending as far north as central British Columbia in the interior and only to a small portion of southwestern British Columbia along the coast, it can also be found in the Alaska Panhandle -- a discontinuous distribution with a minimum gap of 750km.

The Flora of North America lists Cypripedium montanum as having a habitat of "mesic to dry (rarely wet) coniferous, deciduous, and broadleaf evergreen forests, openings, and thickets, around shrubs on open slopes". Today's photographs were taken along the exposed banks of a roadside, and all of the half-dozen or so plants I observed on this trip were covered in gravel-dust. More photographs of this species are available from the Burke Museum: Cypripedium montanum.

In Daniel Moerman's exhaustive Native American Ethnobotany, only one reference is made to a First Nations use of this species. Members of the Okanagan-Colville Nation purportedly used an infusion of the leaves and stalks as a reproductive aid (the infusion was "taken by a pregnant woman to have a small baby"). Source reference for this was a 1980 report by Nancy Turner and colleagues of the Royal British Columbia Museum, "Ethnobotany of the Okanagan-Colville Indians of British Columbia and Washington. As an incidental aside, Dr. Turner worked as a summer student at UBC Botanical Garden sometime in the 1970s.

Lastly, another note for local readers. I'll be presenting on Monday night (number five of at least seven this month), this time on the topic of "Plants of Southern Interior British Columbia" to the Langley Garden Club. If you'd like to attend, the meeting begins at 7:30pm in Murrayville Hall at 21667 48th Avenue (there will likely be a small guest fee to attend).

Posted by Daniel Mosquin at November 6, 2009 3:40 PM

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*swoon* Great set of photos.

I just this past summer encountered this species myself. I'd seen slipper orchids on two OTHER continents before I saw one on my own!

This species is found as south as Wawona Meadows in Yosemite National Park:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ericinsf/3609101083/

Posted by: Eric in SF at November 6, 2009 4:27 PM

So beautiful!!

Posted by: Meg Bernstein at November 6, 2009 5:00 PM

Lovely photos. Such a dainty plant.

Posted by: annie Morgan at November 6, 2009 5:22 PM

Thank you Daniel, these are both very beautiful.

Posted by: Keith at November 6, 2009 5:56 PM

Ooh, a charming octet! What are they singing?

Posted by: Debby at November 6, 2009 6:35 PM

the little slippers could win danceing

with the stars hands down 10 10 10

Posted by: elizabeth a airhart at November 6, 2009 6:59 PM

Wow! These are so cute. I instantly thought of "baby shoes".

I would love to come across this in the wild too. Lovely photo.

Posted by: Cambree at November 6, 2009 10:58 PM

GOOD effort but I need more different pictures

Posted by: hala at November 7, 2009 4:27 AM

The diversity of the plant life in B.C. is truly staggering. What an exotic looking plant.

Posted by: Greg Holmes at November 7, 2009 7:45 AM

I reckon it is worth travelling to Canada from Europe just to see this !! .....maybe next year...

Posted by: brian at November 7, 2009 8:11 AM

You can see pink lady's slippers in the Adirondacks.

Posted by: Barb Stalker at November 7, 2009 9:59 AM

i love pictures of flowers, and these are beautiful!

Posted by: kate at November 7, 2009 10:22 AM

In the middle of all of the wheat fields of "the Palouse" and adjacent to the city limits of Pullman,
Washington, there is a small area of land that has never been cultivated (referred to locally as "magpie forest"). Among the other treasures to be found there is a population of Cypripedium montanum.
I have always thought that the city should annex this parcel, as I believe it would be the only place where this species could be found with a municipality.

Posted by: Richard at November 7, 2009 5:07 PM

Aren't orchids just the most amazing things: their variety, their elegance, their beauty, their deep cunning in their nefarious ways of achieving fertilisation...

Posted by: Elizabeth Revell at November 7, 2009 9:56 PM

This orchid is so very beautiful.

Posted by: Rakia Peshimam at November 8, 2009 7:17 AM

they arent just in bc we also have them here in manitoba. ive only seen pink and yellow ones here not white

Posted by: brittany at November 8, 2009 12:11 PM

Thank you! I enjoy seeing the close up of flowers, but it's an added bonus to see the entire plant.

Posted by: Susan B at November 10, 2009 9:00 AM

The colors of nature are so vibrant and extraordinary, yet this white orchid is so exquisite

Posted by: susan at November 11, 2009 6:04 AM

Please share your comments about the photograph(s) and accompanying write-up. Telling a story about the subject of the photograph(s) is also much appreciated! If you have a gardening question, the best place to ask is on the UBC Botanical Garden Forums. Thank you!

Botany Photo of the Day

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November 6, 2009 : Cypripedium montanum

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