Flora of North America species comparison

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Cypripedium montanum
Cypripedium montanum

mountain lady slipper, mountain lady's-slipper, white lady's-slipper
Habit Plants erect, 25–71 cm.
Leaves

4–6, inserted toward base or scattered along stem, alternate, erect, ascending, or spreading;

blade suborbiculate or broadly ovate to elliptic-lanceolate, 3.3–17 × 2.5–9.5 cm.
Flowers

1–3;

sepals greenish, suffused, often heavily, with reddish brown or madder, or rarely clear green;

dorsal sepal lance-acuminate to elliptic-lance-acuminate, 33–60 × 8–16 mm;

lateral sepals connate;

synsepal 30–60 × 6–18 mm;

petals spreading-deflexed, same color as sepals, spirally twisted, linear to linear-lanceolate, 36–77 × 3–5 mm;

lip white, rarely suffused with magenta, obovoid or oblance-ovoid to oblance-fusiform, 19–33 mm;

orifice basal, 13–22 mm;

staminode lanceoloid to broadly ovoid or ellipsoid-ovoid.

Cypripedium montanum
Phenology Flowering Feb–Sep.
Habitat Mesic to dry (rarely wet) coniferous, deciduous, and broadleaf evergreen forests, openings, and thickets, around shrubs on open slopes
Elevation 0–2400 m (0–7900 ft)
Distribution
from FNA
AK; CA; ID; MT; OR; WA; WY; AB; BC
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Plants of Cypripedium montanum grown in exposed, relatively sunny situations have the ascending leaves inserted along the basal portion of the stem and the flowers displayed well above the leaves. In shadier, especially sheltered sites, the spreading leaves may be more evenly scattered along the stem. In this species the apical margin of the orifice of the lip is usually acute, in common with C. candidum, and in contrast to the usually obtuse margin in C. parviflorum; this difference can aid determination of discolored herbarium specimens. Hybrids of C. montanum and C. parviflorum have been designated C. ×columbianum Sheviak. See 11. C. parviflorum for a general discussion of hybridization and variation within and between related species.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Source FNA vol. 26, p. 504.
Parent taxa Orchidaceae > subfam. Cypripedioideae > Cypripedium
Sibling taxa
C. acaule, C. arietinum, C. californicum, C. candidum, C. fasciculatum, C. guttatum, C. kentuckiense, C. parviflorum, C. passerinum, C. reginae, C. yatabeanum
Name authority Douglas ex Lindley: Gen. Sp. Orchid. Pl., 528. (1840)
Web links 
Unless otherwise noted, all data comes from the online version of the Flora of North America, who have made most of their content available via a Creative Commons license (CC BY 4.0).



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