Here we have the footwear part of a Pink Lady’s Slipper plant (Cypripedium acaule). It was photographed among Star Flowers Wednesday, June 3.
These native orchids, which occasionally are white, are found hiding here and there in our mixed woods in June. They’re getting even more difficult to find on land open to the public due to predation by human collectors.
Lady’s Slippers have two unusual needs. First, they have to seduce insects for pollination. The insects are enticed into an entrance slit in the flower’s sweet-smelling pouch, which closes after they enter. To escape through the only exit, the insects have to squeeze through hairs and pollinate the flower’s stigma with pollen that the insects have picked up elsewhere.
Second, these orchids depend on threads of fungus from the Rhizoctonia genus for reproduction. The fungus has to be in the nearby soil to break open and pass on food to the Lady’s Slippers’ small seeds that are scattered by the wind. (Brooklin, Maine)