{"id":7479,"date":"2022-03-23T02:16:40","date_gmt":"2022-03-23T02:16:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/anpc.ab.ca\/?page_id=7479"},"modified":"2024-04-20T21:26:51","modified_gmt":"2024-04-20T21:26:51","slug":"mountain-ladys-slipper","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/anpc.ab.ca\/?page_id=7479","title":{"rendered":"Mountain Lady’s Slipper"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Rare Plant Profile – Mountain Lady\u2019s Slipper (Cypripedium montanum<\/em> Dougl. ex<\/em> Lindl.)<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Mountain lady\u2019s slipper (Cypripedium montanum<\/em>) is a perennial herb in the Orchidaceae<\/em> Family[1]. Its leafy stems emerge from underground rhizomes to grow 20-50 cm tall. Leaves are alternate, egg-shaped to broadly lance-shaped with many parallel veins. Two or three sweet-scented flowers are found near the end of the stem. Flowers are white and purple, or purplish green in colour, with 3 lance-shaped sepals, 2 narrowly lance-shaped, twisted petals, spreading to the sides, with a broad, white-pouched lower lip petal that has an egg-shaped, purple-dotted, yellow lobe at the mouth of the pouch. Another similar species that also has a white-pouched lower lip is the sparrow\u2019s-egg lady\u2019s slipper (Cypripedium passerinum<\/em> Richards.) but this more common species has much smaller flowers with flat petals and short, egg-shaped sepals. Small native bees pollinate the flowers by crawling into the pouch, transferring pollen as they do so[2].<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Photo by L. Allen<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In Canada, mountain lady\u2019s slipper can be found in moist, open coniferous, deciduous, and mixedwood forests, and forest openings[3] in the montane regions of British Columbia, Alberta, and Saskatchewan[4]. Note that there is some uncertainty as to the natural origin of the Saskatchewan population found in the Cypress Hills[5]. The conservation status rank of mountain lady\u2019s slipper is G4 (Apparently Secure)<\/em> globally, N4N5 (Apparently Secure)<\/em> nationally, and S2 (Imperiled<\/em>) provincially[6]. In Alberta, this ranking is due to habitat loss, fire suppression, harvesting of wild plants, grazing pressures, disturbances due to construction and incidental loss due to the collection of other wild species[7]. Due to their small extent, populations of mountain lady\u2019s slipper can be easily destroyed and rarely survive being transplanted[8].<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Photo by L. Allen<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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[1] Kershaw, L.; Gould, J.; Johnson, D.; Lancaster, J. 2001. Rare vascular plants of Alberta. Univ. Alberta Press, Edmonton, Alberta and Nat. Resour. Can., Can. For. Serv., North. For. Cent., Edmonton, Alberta<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[2] https:\/\/www.fs.fed.us\/wildflowers\/beauty\/cypripedium\/cypripedium_montanum.shtml<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

[3] http:\/\/www.efloras.org\/florataxon.aspx?flora_id=1&taxon_id=242101550<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

[4] https:\/\/explorer.natureserve.org\/Taxon\/ELEMENT_GLOBAL.2.147481\/Cypripedium_montanum<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

[5] https:\/\/www.saskwildflower.ca\/nat_Cypripedium-montanum.html<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

[6] https:\/\/explorer.natureserve.org\/Taxon\/ELEMENT_GLOBAL.2.147481\/Cypripedium_montanum<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/a>[7] Ibid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[8] https:\/\/www.fs.fed.us\/wildflowers\/plant-of-the-week\/cypripedium_montanum.shtml<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rare Plant Profile – Mountain Lady\u2019s Slipper (Cypripedium montanum Dougl. ex Lindl.) Mountain lady\u2019s slipper (Cypripedium montanum) is a perennial herb in the Orchidaceae Family[1]. Its leafy stems emerge from underground rhizomes to grow 20-50 cm tall. Leaves are alternate, egg-shaped to broadly lance-shaped with many parallel veins. Two or three sweet-scented flowers are found near the end […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":10095,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-7479","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/anpc.ab.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/7479","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/anpc.ab.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/anpc.ab.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anpc.ab.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anpc.ab.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7479"}],"version-history":[{"count":24,"href":"https:\/\/anpc.ab.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/7479\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10948,"href":"https:\/\/anpc.ab.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/7479\/revisions\/10948"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anpc.ab.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/10095"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/anpc.ab.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7479"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}