Yellow Lady’s Slipper Orchid

Moccasin Flower
Cypripedium sp.

Greater Yellow Ladies Slipper — Yellow Ladies Slipper Orchid

Usually, sometime around Mother’s Day, you can expect to find Yellow Ladies Slipper Orchids growing in open woods and along streams in Southwest Virginia. Growing up to 2½’ tall, this native orchid is large, conspicuous, but relatively uncommon.

The foliage of yellow ladies slippers, or mocassin flower, is quite distinctive. An erect, hairy stem holds three or more large, alternating leaves. The oval, slightly hairy leaves can grow up to 6″ long each. Strong parallel veins run across the surface of the yellowish-green leaf, giving it a ribbed look, and it is mainly this characteristic that I look for as I am scanning the forest floor for this orchid.

The flower is composed of three petals and three sepals. The two lateral petals are long, thin, and twisted into spirals (these are the “laces” of the slipper). The third, bright yellow petal takes the shape of a slipper, with an opening at the top. The color and size of all the flower parts can be quite variable. See the two galleries below:

Yellow Ladies Slipper at Falls Ridge Preserve

Yellow Ladies Slipper

Yellow Ladies Slipper

Yellow Ladies Slipper Orchid

Yellow Lady’s Slipper (Mountain Lake, June 1st))

Yellow Lady’s Slipper

A group of Yellow Lady’s Slippers near Bald Knob at Mountain Lake

Leaves of Yellow Lady’s Slipper

Yellow Lady’s Slipper

The flowers in the following gallery were found growing together and they were much smaller than any I’ve seen before. I wonder if these might be young versions of greater yellow ladies slippers, or perhaps lesser yellow ladies slippers (a different species)? I’ll leave that distinction to the experts!