Wild Varieties of Lady's Slipper

Pink

• The pink lady's slipper can be found in the eastern United States. It grows on rocky slopes in pine and hemlock forests, or in well-drained soil under birch trees. Pink lady's slipper is also known as the moccasin flower. The plant has two leaves found at the base of the plant, and a large magenta to whitish-pink flower growing at the end of an upright stalk. Pink lady's slippers live in a symbiotic relationship with a fungus in the soil. The fungus breaks open the orchid's seeds and passes food to it. Later, when the plant is older, the fungus extracts nutrients from the lady slipper's roots for its own use. Pink lady slippers can live for 20 years or more and grow between 6 and 15 inches tall.

Yellow

• The yellow lady's slipper grows in the eastern United States and Canada, as far west as the Rocky Mountains and north to the Yukon and Alaska. It can be found in mixed deciduous and coniferous forests, or in open meadows near streams. Yellow lady's slippers grow in multistemmed clumps. Each stem has three to six leaves and one or two flowers. Petals and sepals are colored magenta-brown, and the lip of the flower is an intense yellow.

White

• White lady's slippers grow on the prairies and on the edges of forests where the soil is moist but there is full sunlight. They can be found in Ontario, Canada and in the eastern and central United States, from New York to North Dakota and as far south as Missouri and Kentucky.

Sparrow's Egg

• Sparrow's egg lady's slipper is a multistemmed species that grows in the subarctic areas of Canada and Alaska, as far south as northern Montana. This orchid has three to five leaves and up to three flowers. The petals are white with purple spots, resembling the sparrow's egg for which it was named. This orchid can be found in bogs, tundra, stream banks and thickets of spruce forests.

Showy

• Showy lady's slippers are a threatened or endangered species everywhere they grow. They can be found growing on rocky outcrops of deciduous forests in the northeast, as far west as Minnesota and as far south as Arkansas. This orchid is multistemmed, with three to five leaves per stem and one to three large flowers. The plant can grow almost 3 feet tall, and the flower is white with a rosy lip.