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calypso, fairy slipper orchid, fairy-slipper, Venus-slipper

Habit Herbs, perennial, rather succulent.
Roots

few, slender, fleshy.

Stems

scapose;

corm slender to stout, fleshy; sheathing bracts usually 2, partially cloaking stem.

Leaves

produced in autumn, withering spring, solitary, arising from corm, plicate, leathery.

Inflorescences

terminal, each with 1 flower, arising from corm;

floral bract with color of stem or sepals, reduced to prominent.

Flowers

solitary, resupinate, horizontal to slightly nodding, large, showy;

sepals and petals ascending to erect;

lip slipper-shaped, with basal orifice and 2 horns near apex, margin of lip dilated, forming bearded, apronlike lamina;

pollinarium solitary;

pollinia 4, flattened, superposed in 2 pairs flanking axis of pollinarium;

viscidia large, quadrangular;

stigma concave.

Fruits

capsules.

Calypso

Distribution
from USDA
Circumboreal
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Species 1.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)

Source FNA vol. 26, p. 622. Authors: Charles J. Sheviak, Paul M. Catling.
Parent taxa Orchidaceae > subfam. Epidendroideae > tribe Calypsoeae
Subordinate taxa
C. bulbosa
Name authority Salisbury: Parad. Lond., plate 89. (1807)
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