Cypripedium candidum

Last updated

Small white lady's slipper
Cypripedium candidum Bluegrass.jpg
Status TNC G4.svg
Apparently Secure  (NatureServe) [2]
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Monocots
Order: Asparagales
Family: Orchidaceae
Subfamily: Cypripedioideae
Genus: Cypripedium
Species:
C. candidum
Binomial name
Cypripedium candidum
Muhl. ex Willd.
Synonyms

Calceolus candidus(Muhl. ex Willd.) Nieuwl.

Cypripedium candidum, known as the small white lady's slipper or white lady's slipper, is a rare orchid of the genus Cypripedium . It is native to eastern North America across the northern United States and southern Canada.

Contents

Distribution

Cypripedium candidum is found from western New York, across southern Ontario to North Dakota, and south to New Jersey and Missouri. There are isolated populations of Cypripedium candidum in Connecticut, Maryland, [3] Manitoba, [4] Virginia, Alabama, and (formerly) Saskatchewan. [5] [6] It is found in alkaline wetland [4] and fens, often fragmented [7] in rich, highly calcareous soils, sedge meadow edges, and calcareous ditches.

Description

Cypripedium candidum grows to a height of 20 to 36 cm (7.9 to 14.2 in) and is one of the smallest species of North American Cypripedium. [8] It blooms from late May to early June. [9] [10] Its white pouch-like lip, sometimes dotted with maroon on the inside, is accented by tan, green or brown lateral sepals and petals. [11] It has been known to hybridize [7] with the small yellow ladyslipper, C. parviflorum var. makasin, resulting in the natural hybrid Cypripedium × andrewsii. The leaves and stems are slightly pubescent. The plants grow in (generally) long-lived clumps, with some clumps having up to 50 or more flowers. It is a perennial, with horizontal, wiry-rooted rhizomes growing a few centimeters below the surface of the soil, and hence resistant to most prairie fires.

Conservation

Botanical illustration. Cypripedium candidum.jpg
Botanical illustration.

Cypripedium candidum is considered rare across Canada, endangered in Ontario, and protected under the Ontario Endangered Species Act. It is believed to be extirpated from Saskatchewan. In Ontario, this orchid has never been common due to limited occurrences of fens in its southern Ontario range. It is now known from only two sites in Ontario. It is threatened in the United States, extirpated from Pennsylvania, endangered in South Dakota and Wisconsin, Kentucky, and Michigan, and rare in Missouri and North Dakota. In Illinois, it was listed as endangered in 1980, downgraded to threatened in 1998, and delisted in 2014, when the Illinois Endangered Species Protection Board considered it to be "recovered and/or more common than originally thought". [8] It is listed in Canada as N2, or endangered. Globally, however, it is listed as G4 (apparently secure) because there are protected sites across its entire range.

Habitat loss due to fragmentation through agriculture and development, suppression of fire, incursions by invasive species, especially reed canary grass ( Phalaris arundinacea ), dogwood ( Cornus sp.), leafy spurge ( Euphorbia esula ), St. John's wort ( Hypericum spp.), and buckthorn ( Rhamnus spp.), changes in hydrology, loss of pollinators, hybridization [7] and environmental challenges to the obligate mycorrhizae that support this species are all responsible for its decline. It also has a low seed set caused by often unpollinated flowers. [12] Pollinators for this flower include andrenid and halictid bees. [10] They are observed entering the lip of the flower from the opening to deposit pollen on the stigma while simultaneously brushing the anther to pick up more pollen. [13]

Like many wild orchids, this species has been further endangered by collecting for generally futile attempts at cultivation. It is shade-intolerant and therefore requires substantial management for invasive and woody species as part of any species recovery strategies. [8] Long-term monitoring of this species is being done through various scientific organizations, including the Chicago Botanic Garden's Plants of Concern program. [8] Woody encroachment is considered the greatest modern threat to monitored small white lady's slipper populations in the Chicago region. [8] The Plants of Concern program found significantly more lady's slipper plants when prescribed burning and brush removal were conducted compared to sites without the employment of these management tools. [8]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cypripedioideae</span> Subfamily of orchids

Cypripedioideae is a subfamily of orchids commonly known as lady's slipper orchids, lady slipper orchids or slipper orchids. Cypripedioideae includes the genera Cypripedium, Mexipedium, Paphiopedilum, Phragmipedium and Selenipedium. They are characterised by the slipper-shaped pouches of the flowers – the pouch traps insects so they are forced to climb up past the staminode, behind which they collect or deposit pollinia, thus fertilizing the flower. There are approximately 165 species in the subfamily.

<i>Cypripedium</i> Genus of flowering plants in the orchid family Orchidaceae

Cypripedium is a genus of 58 species and nothospecies of hardy orchids; it is one of five genera that together compose the subfamily of lady's slipper orchids (Cypripedioideae). They are widespread across much of the Northern Hemisphere, including most of Europe and Africa (Algeria), Russia, China, Central Asia, Canada the United States, Mexico, and Central America. They are most commonly known as slipper orchids, lady's slipper orchids, or ladyslippers; other common names include moccasin flower, camel's foot, squirrel foot, steeple cap, Venus' shoes, and whippoorwill shoe. An abbreviation used in trade journals is "Cyp." The genus name is derived from Ancient Greek Κύπρις (Kúpris), an early reference in Greek myth to Aphrodite, and πέδιλον (pédilon), meaning "sandal".

<i>Calypso bulbosa</i> Species of orchid

Calypso is a genus of orchids containing one species, Calypso bulbosa, known as the calypso orchid, fairy slipper or Venus's slipper. It is a perennial member of the orchid family found in undisturbed northern and montane forests. It has a small pink, purple, pinkish-purple, or red flower accented with a white lip, darker purple spottings, and yellow beard. The genus Calypso takes its name from the Greek signifying concealment, as they tend to favor sheltered areas on conifer forest floors. The specific epithet, bulbosa, refers to the bulb-like corms.

<i>Platanthera praeclara</i> Species of orchid

Platanthera praeclara, known as the western prairie fringed orchid and the Great Plains white fringed orchid, is a rare and threatened species of orchid native to North America.

<i>Cypripedium acaule</i> Species of flowering plant in the orchid family Orchidaceae

Cypripedium acaule is a species of flowering plant in the orchid family Orchidaceae native to eastern North America. It is currently the provincial flower of Prince Edward Island, Canada, and the state wildflower of New Hampshire, United States.

<i>Cypripedium parviflorum</i> Species of orchid

Cypripedium parviflorum, commonly known as yellow lady's slipper or moccasin flower, is a lady's slipper orchid native to North America. It is widespread, ranging from Alaska south to Arizona and Georgia. It grows in fens, wetlands, shorelines, and damp woodlands.

<i>Cypripedium dickinsonianum</i> Species of orchid

Cypripedium dickinsonianum is a species of orchid known as Dickinson's lady's slipper or Dickinson's cypripedium after American orchidist Stirling Dickinson.

<i>Cypripedium guttatum</i> Species of orchid

Cypripedium guttatum, the spotted lady's slipper or Alaskan lady's slipper, is a species of orchid found on three continents. Each stem has about two clasping leaves that alternate. The plant has a height of 12 centimeters to 35 centimeters. The magenta and white colored labellum is pitcher shaped.

<i>Cypripedium reginae</i> Species of orchid

Cypripedium reginae, known as the showy lady's slipper, pink-and-white lady's-slipper, or the queen's lady's-slipper, is a rare lady's-slipper orchid native to northern North America. Although never common, this plant has vanished from much of its historical range due to habitat loss. It is the state flower of Minnesota.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Manitoba Tall Grass Prairie Preserve</span> Conservation area in Manitoba, Canada

The Manitoba Tall Grass Prairie Preserve is located in southeastern Manitoba near Gardenton and Vita, this is about 50 kilometres (31 mi) south of Steinbach, Manitoba. It is one of the last remaining stands of tallgrass prairie in Manitoba and is part of the Tallgrass Aspen Parkland conservation area in Manitoba and Minnesota. Several groups and organizations help in land preservation in the Manitoba Tall Grass Prairie such as the Nature Conservancy of Canada, Nature Manitoba, Environment Canada, Manitoba Conservation and the Manitoba Habitat Heritage Corporation.

<i>Cypripedium calceolus</i> Species of orchid

Cypripedium calceolus is a lady's-slipper orchid, and the type species of the genus Cypripedium. It is native to Europe and Asia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Grass Wood, Wharfedale</span> Ancient woodland in North Yorkshire, England

Grass Wood is an ancient woodland of 88 hectares in Wharfedale, North Yorkshire, England, that has an exceptional ground flora of woodland wildflowers.

<i>Cypripedium arietinum</i> Species of flowering plant in the orchid family Orchidaceae

Cypripedium arietinum, the ram's head lady's slipper, is a rare terrestrial orchid that grows in lightly to heavily shaded areas with calcareous soils. It is characteristic of the alvars around the Great Lakes in North America]. In Canada, it is found from Quebec to Saskatchewan, plus an isolated population in Nova Scotia, where it grows on gypsum based soils, 330 km away from the nearest population in Maine.

<i>Galearis rotundifolia</i> Species of orchid

Galearis rotundifolia is a species of flowering plants in the orchid family, Orchidaceae. It is commonly called roundleaf orchis and small round-leaved orchid. It is a succulent perennial herb native to North America, where it occurs throughout Canada, part of the northern United States, and Greenland.

<i>Cypripedium passerinum</i> Species of orchid

Cypripedium passerinum is a species of lady's slipper orchid known by the common names sparrow's-egg lady's-slipper, spotted lady's-slipper, and Franklin's lady's-slipper.

<i>Spiranthes magnicamporum</i> Species of plant

Spiranthes magnicamporum, commonly called the Great Plains lady's tresses, is a species of orchid that is native to North America. It is primarily native in the Great Plains, but there are outlying populations in the east in areas of former natural grassland, such as the Black Belt prairies of the Southeast. It is found in both fens and wet and dry prairies, often in calcareous soil.

<i>Megachile melanophaea</i> Species of bee

Megachile melanophaea is a species of leaf-cutter bee in the family Megachilidae. It was first described by the British zoologist Frederick Smith in 1853. It is native to North America.

References

  1. ↑ Rankou, H. (2014). "Cypripedium candidum". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species . 2014: e.T43315514A43327624. doi: 10.2305/IUCN.UK.2014-1.RLTS.T43315514A43327624.en . Retrieved 20 November 2021.
  2. ↑ Catling, P.M., and G. Knerer. 1980. Pollination of the small white lady's-slipper (Cypripedium candidum) in Lambton County, southern Ontario. Canadian Field-Naturalist. 94(4):435-438. Coffin, B., and L. Pfannmuller, editors. 1988. Minnesota's endangered flora and fauna. University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis, Minnesota. 473 pp. Kartesz, J.T. 1994. A synonymized checklist of the vascular flora of the United States, Canada, and Greenland. 2nd edition. 2 vols. Timber Press, Portland, OR.
  3. ↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2009-05-01. Retrieved 2009-01-23.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  4. 1 2 Brownell, V.R. 1981. COSEWIC status report on the small white Lady’s-slipper Cypripedium candidum in Canada. Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada. Ottawa. 63 pp.
  5. ↑ USDA, NRCS (n.d.). "Cypripedium candidum". The PLANTS Database (plants.usda.gov). Greensboro, North Carolina: National Plant Data Team.
  6. ↑ "Cypripedium candidum". County-level distribution map from the North American Plant Atlas (NAPA). Biota of North America Program (BONAP). 2014.
  7. 1 2 3 Environment Canada. 2014. Recovery Strategy for the Small White Lady’s-slipper (Cypripedium candidum) in Canada [Proposed]. Species at Risk Act Recovery Strategy Series. Environment Canada, Ottawa. v + 30 pp.
  8. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Cypripedium candidum | Plants of Concern". Archived from the original on 2017-04-02. Retrieved 2017-04-02.
  9. ↑ "Cypripedium candidum (small white lady's-slipper): Plant Phenology". iNaturalist.org. Retrieved 2018-10-31.
  10. 1 2 Bowles, Marlin L. (1983). "The Tallgrass Prairie Orchids Platanthera leucophaea (Nutt.) Lindl. and Cypripedium candidum Muhl. ex Willd.: Some Aspects of Their Status, Biology, and Ecology, and Implications Toward Management". Natural Areas Journal. 3 (4): 14–37. ISSN   0885-8608. JSTOR   43915824.
  11. ↑ Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry. 2016. Recovery Strategy for the Small White Lady’s-slipper (Cypripedium candidum) in Ontario. Ontario Recovery Strategy Series. Prepared by the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry, Peterborough, Ontario. iv + 4 pp. + Appendix v + 30 pp. Adoption of Recovery Strategy for the Small White Lady’s-slipper (Cypripedium candidum) in Canada (Environment Canada 2014).
  12. ↑ Walsh RP, Arnold PM, Michaels HJ. 2014. Effects of pollination limitation and seed predation on female reproductive success of a deceptive orchid. AoB Plants 6: plu031; doi:10.1093/aobpla/plu031
  13. ↑ Catling, P.M., & Knerer, G. (1980). Pollination of the small white lady's-slipper (Cypripedium candidum) in Lambton County, Southern Ontario.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.