Pink Lady’s Slipper; Moccasin Flower (Cypripedium acaule) has solitary flowers surmounting a scape from 8 to 12 in. high; lip large, drooping pink, with a slit in front, instead of a circular opening as in the others. It frequents dry woods and may be found from southern Canada southward.
Although this is the most common of the Lady’s Slippers, it is no less beautiful than the others. The flower of the present species is a very ingenious contrivance; it is fertilized by the common bumblebee. The only entrance is through the fissure in the front; it requires considerable pressure to force his burly frame through, but at length he succeeds and the aperture closes behind him. After eating his fill he takes the easiest way out, toward the base where he can see two spots of light. As he forces his way through the narrow passage he comes in contact with a sticky stigma, armed with incurving hairs which remove any pollen he may have on his back; as he continues his struggle out he reaches an anther blocking the passage and waiting to clap its load of pollen on his back.
(A) Green Wood Orchis (Habenaria clavellata) has from three to sixteen inconspicuous greenish flowers in a loose spike at the top of a stem from 6 to 18 in. high; lip oblong and with three teeth; spur long, slender, and curved upward and to one side. One or two oblong-lanceolate leaves with obtuse tips clasp the stem near the base while several small bracts alternate along it. Grows in bogs from Newfoundland to Minn. and southward.
(B) Green-fringed Orchis (Habenaria flava) is a common green orchis (formerly virescens). The lower leaves are oblong-lanceolate, while the upper ones are linear, diminishing in size and passing into the flower bracts. The flower lip is square-ended and toothed; spur slender and about the length of the flower. In the whole U. S. and southern Canada we may find this species growing in bogs.
Habenaria bracteata is similar to flava, but the flower bracts are large, being from two to four times the length of the flowers. N. S. to Alaska and south through the U. S.
(A) Yellow-fringed Orchis (Habenaria ciliaris) is an attractive and rather common orchis with a tall leafy stem from 12 to 24 in. high. The spike is very closely set with flowers having rounded petals, fringed lips, and slender spurs about an inch in length. The leaves are lanceolate, gradually diminishing in size as they approach the spike and passing into the flower bracts. Found from Me. to Mich. and southward.
(B) Hooker’s Orchis (H. Hookeri) has a leafless scape from 6 to 12 in. high, at the base of which are two broad, oval, shining, deep-green leaves. The ten to twenty flowers are yellowish-green; lip lanceolate and sharply pointed, less than half an inch long; slender spur about one inch long. Flowers during June and July in woods from Me. to Minn. and south to N.C.
Round-leaved Orchis (H. orbiculata) is similar to Hookeri; the lip is oblong, obtuse, and about the same length as the spur. The two basal leaves are almost round. It is common in rich woods from Labrador to Alaska and southward.