- Family:
- Orchidaceae Juss.
- Genus:
- Cypripedium L.
Cypripedium acaule Aiton

[C-EM]
- Biology
-
Flowering in April to June.
- Distribution
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Widespread in North America, most abundandy in the eastern and northeastern parts of its range. Canada (Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, Quebec, Ontario west to Saskatchewan and Alberta), U.S.A. (Ne,v England south to South Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee and Alabama and west to Minnesota, Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky).
- Ecology
-
In a variety of habitats from wet sphagnum bog to dry Pinus (pine) forest, usually in moderate shade where the soil is rich in humus, strongly acidic and thoroughly aerated. Flowering in April to June.
- General Description
-
A terrestrial herb 20-45 cm tall, with a very short erect underground stem, 1-7 cm long, covered by two to three glabrous tubular sheaths and growing from a short underground rhizome. Leaves nvo, plicate, basal, spreading-suberect, elliptic, 10-28 cm long, 5-15 cm wide, glandular-pubescent, ciliate, glossy bright green. Inflorescence one- or rarely two-flowered; peduncle erect, to 40 cm long, glandular-pubescent; bract arching over flower, foliaceous, lanceolate, acuminate, 4-5 cm long, 1-1.5 cm wide, glandular- pubescent. Flower large, nutant, with yellow-green to maroon sepals and petals and a pink or rarely white lip, the staminode green to pink; pedicel and ovary 1-1.5 cm long, glandular-pubescent. Dorsal sepal often arching over lip, ovate- to elliptic-lanceolate, acuminate, 3-5 cm long, 0.5-1.7 cm wide, glandular-ciliate on basal margins, sparsely glandular-pubescent without and within; synsepal elliptic- to ovate-lanceolate, acute to obtuse, 3-4.5 cm long, 1-2.3 cm wide, sparsely glandular-pubescent without, glandular-ciliate. Petals deflexed at 45°, slightly twisted, slightly falcate, linear-lanceolate to lanceolate, acute, 4-6 cm long, 1-1.7 cm wide, densely pubescent at the base within. Lip ellipsoid-obovoid, longer than the sepals, 4-6 cm long, 2.5-3.5 cm wide, densely pubescent on inner surface at base, pubescent on front margin and around mouth on outer surface, lacking discernable side lobes, the orifice elongate and narrow, the margins incurved except at the apex. Column 1-1.2 cm long, pubescent on dorsal surface; staminode convex, suborbicular- rhombic to ovoid-deltoid, obtuse to 1.8 cm long and 1.4 cm wide, densely pubescent.
Native to:
Alabama, Alberta, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Maine, Manitoba, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Brunswick, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Newfoundland, North Carolina, Northwest Territorie, Nova Scotia, Ohio, Ontario, Pennsylvania, Prince Edward I., Québec, Rhode I., Saskatchewan, South Carolina, Tennessee, Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia, Wisconsin
- Calceolus hirsutus (Mill.) Nieuwl.
- Cypripedium acaule f. albiflora E.L.Rand & Redfield
- Cypripedium acaule f. biflorum P.M.Br.
- Cypripedium acaule f. lancifolia House
- Cypripedium catesbianum Raf.
- Cypripedium hirsutum Mill.
- Cypripedium humile Salisb.
- Cypripedium vittatum var. planum Raf.
- Fissipes acaulis (Aiton) Small
- Fissipes acaulis f. lancifolia House
- Fissipes hirsuta (Mill.) Farw.
- Fissipes hirsuta f. albiflora (E.L.Rand & Redfield) Farw.
- English
- Moccasin Flower
Cypripedium acaule Aiton appears in other Kew resources:
Date | Reference | Identified As | Barcode | Type Status | Has image? |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Schwarz, V.T., USA | 45327.000 | No | |||
57353.000 | No | ||||
5791.000 | No | ||||
72742.000 | No | ||||
Eaton, D.C. [s.n.], Connecticut | K000363696 | Yes | |||
Eaton, D.C. [s.n.], USA | K000363695 | Yes | |||
Canada | K000363699 | Yes | |||
Torrey [s.n.], New Jersey | Cypripedium humile | K000363697 | Yes | ||
Gouldie [s.n.], Canada | Cypripedium humile | K000363738 | Yes | ||
Fraser [53], USA | Cypripedium humile | K000363698 | Yes |
First published in Hort. Kew. 3: 303 (1789)
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.
- Herkert, J.R. & Ebinger, J.E. (eds.) (2002). Endangered and Threatened Species of Illinois: status and distribution 1: 1-161. Endangered species protection board, Springfield, Illinois.
Literature
Cypripedioideae: e-monocot.org
- Aiton, W. Original description of Cypripedium acaule. 3, (1789).
-
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 Living Collection Database
Common Names from Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew Living Collection https://www.kew.org/
-
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