Discovered: Pink Ladies in the Forest
The Pink Lady's Slipper on Display
Pink Ladies in the Forest - a Tanka Poem
Pink lady's slippers
Sway gently in the spring breeze
Beneath ancient pines.
Orchids growing in the wild,
Nature's floral adornment.
ABOUT THE PINK LADY'S SLIPPER
The pink lady's slipper (Cypripedium acaule) is a large, beautiful wildflower belonging to the orchid family. It grows primarily in the eastern half of North America, from Georgia and Alabama in the southeastern United States northward into the maritime provinces of Canada.
The pink lady's slipper grows to a height of 6-15 inches and features a large balloon-like blossom that resembles a lady's shoe. The plant blooms from late May through early July. The 3-inch blossom is usually a bright pink with red veins; however, blossoms can also be white or yellow. The plant is a perennial that can take from 5-10 years to go from seeds to mature plants, and can live for up to 20 years.
Pink lady's slippers usually grow in "colonies," mostly in wooded areas with filtered sunlight, where there is a mix of evergreen and deciduous trees. The flowers require highly acidic soil, and a specific symbiotic microrrhizal fungus to be present in the soil in order for the flower's seeds to receive nourishment. For that reason, pink lady's slippers growing in the wild very likely will not survive efforts to transplant them into gardens. They should never be picked, nor their seeds harvested for cultivation.
Pink lady's slippers are legally protected as endangered/vulnerable species in four states of the United States (Georgia, Illinois, New York, and Tennessee), and in Canada.
View a slideshow of the pink lady's slipper colony in our front yard.
SOURCES:
Celebrating Wildflowers: Pink Lady's Slippers - (U.S. Forest Service site)
About the Pink Lady's Slipper - gardenguides.com
Pink lady's slippers
Sway gently in the spring breeze
Beneath ancient pines.
Orchids growing in the wild,
Nature's floral adornment.
ABOUT THE PINK LADY'S SLIPPER
The pink lady's slipper (Cypripedium acaule) is a large, beautiful wildflower belonging to the orchid family. It grows primarily in the eastern half of North America, from Georgia and Alabama in the southeastern United States northward into the maritime provinces of Canada.
The pink lady's slipper grows to a height of 6-15 inches and features a large balloon-like blossom that resembles a lady's shoe. The plant blooms from late May through early July. The 3-inch blossom is usually a bright pink with red veins; however, blossoms can also be white or yellow. The plant is a perennial that can take from 5-10 years to go from seeds to mature plants, and can live for up to 20 years.
Pink lady's slippers usually grow in "colonies," mostly in wooded areas with filtered sunlight, where there is a mix of evergreen and deciduous trees. The flowers require highly acidic soil, and a specific symbiotic microrrhizal fungus to be present in the soil in order for the flower's seeds to receive nourishment. For that reason, pink lady's slippers growing in the wild very likely will not survive efforts to transplant them into gardens. They should never be picked, nor their seeds harvested for cultivation.
Pink lady's slippers are legally protected as endangered/vulnerable species in four states of the United States (Georgia, Illinois, New York, and Tennessee), and in Canada.
View a slideshow of the pink lady's slipper colony in our front yard.
SOURCES:
Celebrating Wildflowers: Pink Lady's Slippers - (U.S. Forest Service site)
About the Pink Lady's Slipper - gardenguides.com
Published by Mike Powers
Winner of the 2010 Best of AC Award in the Books category, I am a freelance writer with extensive experience writing online book, movie, and music reviews, poetry, short stories, and other articles of gener... View profile
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40 Comments
Post a CommentWell done!
Cute name for a flower :)
excellent :)
Well done and I miss seeing them in New England.
Informative and great pic.
I enjoyed the poem, the information on Pink Ladies, and the photography! Well done!
Nice discovery.
great article and loved the pictures
Fabulous! :-)
Wow. What a gift from the wild!