Cypripedium acaule

Pink Lady's Slipper, Moccasin-flower

[ click on any image below to see larger version ]


Family: Orchidaceae

Mid-Atlantic bloom time: early May

The species name acaule is Latin, meaning, "stem less", which refers to the plant’s leafless flowering stem.

Pink Lady's Slipper is highly dependent on a fungus in the soil from the Rhizoctonia genus. It requires this fungus to germinate and to symbiotically exchange nutrients, so it is ill-advised to ever attempt to transplant a specimen.

According to a USDA Forest Service webpage (2014),

"The root of lady's slipper was used as a remedy for nervousness, tooth pain, and muscle spasms. In the 1800s and 1900s it, and other orchids, were widely used as a substitute for the European plant valerian for sedative properties."




12 May 2012
Bull Run Mountains Natural Area Preserve, Haymarket, VA
10 May 2014
Bull Run Mountains Natural Area Preserve, Haymarket, VA
12 May 2011
Shenandoah National Park, VA
12 May 2012
Bull Run Mountains Natural Area Preserve, Haymarket, VA
10 May 2014
Bull Run Mountains Natural Area Preserve, Haymarket, VA
 

   




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