Cypripedium reginae

Cypripedium reginae, known in English as "showy ladyslipper", "pink and white lady's slipper", "royal lady's slipper", or "queen's lady's slipper" and in French as cypripède royal, is a rare perennial orchid native to southeastern Canada and northeastern United States.

Here's a dear lady's slipper just opening. It reminds me of a shy maiden ducking her head, with blushing cheeks.

Lady's slippers produce no nectar to entice pollinators; according to a sign at Purdon, they rely of the "curosity" of bees. If a flower actually is pollinated, it produces thousands of tiny seeds. However, they mostly reproduce vegetatively from rhizomes.

I hadn't seen showy lady's slipper in real life before I visited the Purdon Conservation Area in eastern Ontario. (When I was growing up we lived not that far away, but the Purdon has a large fen for the showy lady's slippers, whereas our land had lots of rocks with thin soil that the pink lady's slipper, Cypripedium acaule, favours.) Lady's slippers are particular about their growing environment and difficult to grow in the garden (unless you are a gifted gardener like Teza) so for most of us it is best to enjoy them in the wild. (Removing plants from the wild is bad in any case but especially for rare plants like this which are unlikely to survive transplantation. Because cypripediums are so difficult to cultivate, it's vital to make sure that if you buy one it wasn't just dug up from the wild.)

You're unlikely to see this many lady's slippers in any garden, not only due to the difficulty of growing them but the cost, about $40 per plant.

This is only a small fraction of the lady's slippers blooming now at Purdon. Truly an amazing sight.