Woodland Slippers

An endangered flower in our woodlands is the impressive Pink Lady Slipper (Cypripedium acaule).  A favorite food of the white tail deer, lady slippers are quickly disappearing from over browsing and habitat loss.  This large showy flower belongs to the orchid family and can, if lucky enough, flourish for 20 – 150 years. However, it is a niche plant, only surviving in limited circumstances.  Like all orchids, its seed contains no food for germination but instead relies on a specific fungus to eat the outer shell and subsequently provide it with sustenance to grow.  Once the plant grows large enough to provide its own food, the fungus will extract nutrients from the plant’s roots, making this a truly symbiotic relationship.  And this is what makes the plant so difficult to transplant.  It must have the correct fungus, soil type, and moisture combination.  The Lady takes many years to go from seed to mature plant.  Once it does blossom, it requires bees to pollinate it.  Attracted by its scent and color, the bee enters through the top slit and becomes trapped.  Its only escape route is along hairs that lead past the sigma to a pair of exit openings, one beneath each pollen mass.  Because the flower has no nectar, once fooled a bee will rarely return.  Research shows that out of 1,000 flowers, only about 23 will become pollinated.  But each flower can produce about 60,000 tiny seeds.  So it is the plant’s longevity that provides for the species survival.  If you see one in the wild, consider yourself lucky, take pictures but don’t pick!  The Lady needs to be left alone. Photo: University of Wisconsin - Madison