General: Perennial herb from slender rhizomes, with coarse, fibrous roots; stems 10-50 cm tall, glandular-hairy, leafy.
Leaves: Stem leaves 3 to 5, lanceolate to elliptic, 5-15 cm long, 3.5-6 cm wide, ribbed, the base sheathing.
Flowers: Inflorescence usually of a single, showy flower; sepals greenish-yellow to purplish or purple-veined, 3-5 cm long, 1-2 cm wide, upper sepal broadly lanceolate, the lower sepals united, pendant behind lip; lateral petals narrower than but otherwise similar to upper sepal, sometimes twisted, 3.5-5 cm long; lip balloon-like, generally egg-shaped, 2-3.5 cm long, yellow, often purple-spotted on inside especially near mouth, mouth puckered, margin in-rolled.
Notes: C. x columbianum Sheviak, a hybrid of C. montanum and C. parviflorum var. pubescens, is known from BC and the adjacent NW U.S.A. (see notes under C. montanum). Two varieties of C. parviflorum occur in BC var. makasin and var. pubescens. Some authors (e.g., Cribb 1997) include var. makasin within var. parviflorum, a variety not found in BC
1. Outer surface of sheathing bract sparsely hairy to smooth, when young; intense sweet scent................. var. makasin (Farwell) Sheviak
1. Sheathing bract densely hairy when young; moderately scented................. var. pubescens (Willd.) Knight
Moist to mesic streambanks, river terraces, thickets, and mossy bogs and swamps in the steppe and montane zones; infrequent E of the Coast-Cascade Mountains; var. makasin - N to YT and NT, E to NF and S to ME, MA, PA, IN, IL, IA, ND, CO and CA; var. pubescens - N to AK and YT, E to NF and S to ME, MA, PA, GA, AL, MS, KS, NM, AZ and WA.
This is a beautiful native hardy lady's slipper orchid with a golden yellow pouch and twisted purple to burgundy petals. The flowers are faintly scented (fruity to vanilla). A very choice plant for the partial shade of a woodland garden in a well-drained humus-rich soil. Once considered to be the circumboreal C. calceolus (which occurs in Europe and Asia), now our North American plants are considered to be their own closely related species, C. parviflorum. Large plants, great value.
Note Author: Gary Lewis, Phoenix Perennials
Ecology
Ecological Framework for Cypripedium parviflorum var. pubescens
The table below shows the species-specific information calculated from original data (BEC database) provided by the BC Ministry of Forests and Range. (Updated August, 2013)
