Family:
Orchidaceae Juss.
Genus:
Cypripedium L.

Cypripedium montanum Douglas ex Lindl.

This species is accepted, and its native range is Alaska to California.

[C-EM]
General Description

A terrestrial herb 25-70 cm tall, growing from a short stout rhizome. Stem erect, leafy, somewhat flexuous, covered below by several tubular sheaths, four- to seven-leaved above, glandular- pubescent. Leaves spreading-ascendent, plicate, broadly ovate to elliptic-lanceolate, obtuse to shordy acuminate, 5-16 cm long, 2.5-8 cm wide, glandular-pubescent on the veins, glandularciliate. Inflorescence one- to three-flowered; peduncle 6-11 cm long, glandular-pubescent; bracts foliaceous, ovate-elliptic to broadly elliptic, acute to acuminate, 4-8.5 cm long. Flowers showy, with maroon-brown sepals and petals and a white lip, the staminode yellow with red spotting, well-spaced on rhachis; pedicel and ovary 2-3.6 cm long, densely glandular-pubescent. Dorsal sepal ascending- suberect, lanceolate to ovate-lanceolate, long-acuminate, 3-6.5 cm long, 1-1.5 cm wide, the margins somewhat undulate, pubescent on outer surface; synsepal elliptic-lanceolate, bidentate at acuminate apex, 3-6.5 cm long, 0.8-1.5 cm wide, pubescent on outer surface. Petals deflexed at 45° to horizontal, linear to linear-lanceolate, acuminate, 4.5-7 cm long, 0.3-0.6 cm wide, spirally twisted two to three times, pilose on inner surface. Lip obliquely ellipsoidal, somewhat boat-shaped, 2-3 cm long, 1.3-1.7 cm across, pilose within, the mouth small. Column short, c. 1 cm long; staminode ovate-oblong to trullate, subacute, 0.8-1.2 cm long, 0.5-0.6 cm wide, longitudinally conduplicate, glabrous.

Ecology

In moist and dry open woods, subalpine slopes, and sometimes in scrub oak or swamps, usually at high elevation; to 1600 m. Flowering in April to July.

Distribution

Canada (Vancouver Island, British Colombia, Alberta), U.S.A. (SE. Alaska, Washington, Oregon, Montana, Idaho, Colorado, Wyoming, California).

Biology

Flowering in April to July.

Native to:

Alaska, Alberta, British Columbia, California, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington, Wyoming

Cypripedium montanum Douglas ex Lindl. appears in other Kew resources:

Date Reference Identified As Barcode Type Status Has image?
Frosch, W., USA 59749.000 No
Perner, H., USA 60168.000 No
Crease [s.n.], Canada K000363732 Yes
Douglas [s.n.], USA K000363733 Yes
Douglas [s.n.], Northwestern U.S.A. K000718631 isotype Yes
Elves [s.n.] K000718632 Yes

First published in Gen. Sp. Orchid. Pl.: 528 (1840)

Accepted by

  • Govaerts, R. (1999). World Checklist of Seed Plants 3(1, 2a & 2b): 1-1532. MIM, Deurne.
  • Govaerts, R. (2003). World Checklist of Monocotyledons Database in ACCESS: 1-71827. The Board of Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.

Literature

Cypripedioideae: e-monocot.org

  • Lindley, J. Original description of Cypripedium montanum. (1840).at

  • Cypripedioideae: e-monocot.org

    All Rights Reserved

  • Herbarium Catalogue Specimens

    Digital Image © Board of Trustees, RBG Kew http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

  • Kew Backbone Distributions

    The International Plant Names Index and World Checklist of Selected Plant Families 2022. Published on the Internet at http://www.ipni.org and http://apps.kew.org/wcsp/
    © Copyright 2017 World Checklist of Selected Plant Families. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0

  • Kew Names and Taxonomic Backbone

    The International Plant Names Index and World Checklist of Selected Plant Families 2022. Published on the Internet at http://www.ipni.org and http://apps.kew.org/wcsp/
    © Copyright 2017 International Plant Names Index and World Checklist of Selected Plant Families. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0