Kingdom: Plantae

Phylum: Magnoliophyta -- flowering plants

Class: Liliopsida -- monocotyledons

Order: Orchidales

Family: Orchidaceae -- Orchid

Common Name: mountain lady’s-slipper

Species Code: CYMO

Origin: Native to moist shrub thickets and dry to moist coniferous woods from British Columbia south to northern California and east to Alberta, Montana and northern Wyoming.

Rare: no

Form: forb, perennial from thick rhizomes, glandular-pubescent throughout, 20-60 cm tall, erect.

Duration: perennial

Habitat Type: shrub thickets, forest, uncommon on moist places in open grassland.

Wetland Indicator Status: FACU

Leaves: 4-6, ovate to elliptic-lanceolate, acuminate, 6-15 cm long, ribs prominent, sessile, base sheathing the stem.

Mature height: 8-24 inches

Flowers: perfect; sepals and petals reddish brown to purple, wavy; lip white, inflated and pouch-like, sometimes with reddish brown to purple veins.

Flowers color: white/purple

Bloom: May, June

Bloom starts on: late May

Bloom ends on: late June

Fruit: capsule, erect, narrowly ellipsoid, ribbed, glandular-hairy.

Characteristics:
Reproduces sexually by seed.
Perennating organ is a rhizome.
Orchid seeds germinate but generally produce only a small corm the first year. The second year they produce a few roots, a scale leaf and a stem tip. The third year they produce an aerial green leaf and usually require 8-16 years to produce a flower (Curtis 1943).
C. montanum seeds germinate but do not send up leaves until 1.5 years. Requires at least 4 years after leaf emergence to flowering (Huber 2002).
Seeds will not germinate unless in the presence of a mycorrhizae species associated with the plant and may not produce a leaf for several years after germination (Kaye 1999).
Plants may remain dormant for 1 or more years (Kaye 1999).
Pollinated by insects.
Cypripedium spp. do not produce nectar and attract pollinators by deceit (Kaye 1999).
Fruit is a capsule.

Sun requirement: partial to full shade, uncommon in full sun

Soil moisture: mesic

Sowing time: not recommended

Transplant time: not recommended

Seed comments: Neither native orchids nor their seed should ever be collected.

Herbaria: Specimen data and digital resources from The Consortium of Pacific Northwest Herbaria

Key words: native upland forb

Propagation:
Neither native orchids nor their seed should ever be collected from the wild. Enjoy them where they grow and leave them alone. Orchid seeds are dissimilar from seed of most other plants. Seed germination requires the use of special media and techniques.
Orchid seeds lack an endosperm, radicle, and leaf rudiments (Arditti et al 1981).
Native orchids do not do well in cultivation and will persist in the garden for only a few seasons. They should not be collected from the wild (Hitchcock & Cronquist 1973).
Reproduces sexually by seed.

Notes: Cypripedium fasciculatum and Cypripedium montanum are both forest species although C. montanum does sometimes grow under hawthorn. Like most orchids, they are very difficult to grow. No one should be collecting seed or plants of either one. Enjoy them where they occur and otherwise leave them alone. Common names are clustered ladyslipper and mountain ladyslipper, respectively (Skinner et al 2005).

References:
Arditti, Joseph, Justine D. Michaud, and Allison P. Oliva. 1981. Seed Germination of North American Orchids. I. Native California and Related Species of Calypso, Epipactis, Goodyera, Piperia, and Platanthera. Botanical Gazette 142:442-453.

Brown, Paul M. 2006. Wild Orchids of the Pacific Northwest and Canadian Rockies. University Press of Florida, Gainesville FL. 287 pp.

Curtis, John T. 1943. Germination and Seedling Development in Five Species of Cypripedium L. American Journal of Botany 30:199-206.

Hitchcock, C. Leo, and Arthur Cronquist. 1973. Flora of the Pacific Northwest. Univ. of Washington Press. Seattle, WA.

Huber, Andrew G. 2002. Mountain Lady's Slipper (Cypridedium montanum): Establishment from Seed in Forest Openings. Native Plants Journal 3(2):151-154.

Kaye, Thomas N. 1999. Timber Harvest and Cypripedium montanum: Results of a Long-term Study on the Medford District BLM. Report to USDI Bureau of Land Management. Online at http://www.appliedeco.org/Reports/Cypripedium_montanum_logging.PDF

Skinner, David M., Paul Warnick, Bill French, and Mary Fauci. 2005. More Palouse Forbs for Landscaping. USDA NRCS Pullman Plant Materials Center and Palouse Prairie Foundation. Online at http://www.wsu.edu/pmc_nrcs/Docs/More_Forbs_for_Landscaping.pdf

Links:
Plant Profile from the USDA PLANTS Database
Species description from Flora of North America
Species information from the University of Washington Herbarium