Cypripedium reginae (Showy Lady's Slipper) - photos and description
General: Upright plants with, stout stems. Foliage pubescent.
Flowers: Flowers solitary, very showy having a large pink-white pouch for its lower lip. The lateral petals and sepals are snow white, the lateral sepals are united together under the lip. We measured flowers to 9 cm wide, and the lip to 4.5 cm long.
Leaves: Large pleated leaves, oval to elliptical in shape, clasp the stem, alternate. Leaf highlighted in above photo was 16 cm long and 8.5 cm wide.
Height: Listed in Budd's Flora to 60 cm tall. We measured plants to 65 cm in height.
Habitat: Historical records are from wet forests and bogs in east central Saskatchewan, along the Manitoba border.
Abundance: Extremely rare in Saskatchewan, ranked as an S1 (as of 2021) by the Saskatchewan Conservation Data Centre. This plant might be extirpated from the province.
Update (summer of 2020): a botanist found a few plants in the Creighton district of Saskatchewan. This is in the northern boreal forest, 7 hours northeast of Regina. First time the plant has been found in SK in 30 years.
Origin: Native.
When and where photographed: Photos taken June 24th, wet, mossy, open spruce woods, just across the Manitoba border, boreal forest 450 km north east of our home in Regina, SK.