Cypripedium acaule
Hort. Kew. 3: 303. 1789.
Plants erect, 15–61 cm; stems leafless scapes. Leaves 2, radical, arising directly from rhizome, ascending to spreading; blade broadly elliptic to oblong, ovate, or obovate-elliptic, 9–30 × 2.5–15 cm. Flowers solitary; sepals reddish-brown to green; dorsal sepal lanceolate to lanceovate or elliptic, 19–52 × 5–22 mm; lateral sepals connate, synsepal 17–49 × 6–25 mm; petals deflexed to somewhat spreading, somewhat spirally twisted, same color as sepals, linear to ovatelanceolate, 24–60 × 4–17 mm; lip magenta to white, obovoid to oblance-ovoid, 30–67 mm, orifice a longitudinal fissure, length of lip; staminode quadrangular to suborbicular-rhomboid or ovoid-deltoid. 2n = 20.
Phenology: Flowering Apr–Jul.
Habitat: Dry to wet forests, bogs, brushy barrens, heath, and roadsides on highly acidic soil
Elevation: mostly 0–1200 m
Distribution
Alta., Man., N.B., Nfld. and Labr. (Nfld.), N.W.T., N.S., Ont., P.E.I., Que., Sask., Ala., Conn., Del., D.C., Ga., Ill., Ind., Ky., Maine, Md., Mass., Mich., Minn., N.H., N.J., N.Y., N.C., Ohio, Pa., R.I., S.C., Tenn., Vt., Va., W.Va., Wis.
Discussion
Selected References
None.