ABOUT OUR GROUP: We are open to the public! Our mission is to exchange ideas and information about native plants and landscapes. We have no boundaries; in addition to discussing how to use native plants in our own backyard, we also consider how to protect the environment and conserve natural wildlife habitats throughout the world.

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PICTURE: Pink Lady's Slipper (Cypripedium Acaule) is also known as Pink Moccasin Flower.

A perennial orchid emerging from thickened roots; displaying 2 basal leaves and a large, showy flower on an erect stalk, growing 6 to 15 inches tall. Flowers May to July. Its primary range is the entire NE USA, Newfoundland to Georgia; Alabama and Tennessee across the Midwest to Minnesota and even Saskatchewan..

This plant is infrequent but adaptable. It can be found in bogs, acidic woods, and sand dunes; in dry/fresh, jack pine and black spruce forests on sandy and coarse loamy soils. It can be very difficult to grow in wildflower gardens and propagate poorly. However, some gardeners have reported success when planted in the acidic humus of pine needles in shade of pine trees. Only purchase from reputable nurseries that self-propagate this species. Never purchase from individuals that dig up Pink Lady's Slipper from the wild..

Botanists in the middle Ages named the flower Calceolus marianus, the "little shoe of the Virgin Mary." When renamed by Carolus Linnaeus, it took on the more secular Cypripedium, "Venus's slipper." This derives from the Greek Kypris for Venus, who arose from sea foam caused off the coast of Cyprus, and podium, little foot. The name Moccasin Flower also relates to the shape.