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Pink Lady Slipper (Moccasin-Flower) (Cypripedium)

When you see it you will know it. The blossom possesses, like a proud peacock beneath its chin, a heavily veined and deeply clefted pouch, or "slipper." The blossom of the pink Lady slipper is about 2.5" long with sepals and side petals, like so much discarded brown paper, flying off from its top. The pink Lady slipper puts out a single flower on top of a smooth leafless stem coming directly from the ground where it is clasped by two broad basal leaves which can run 8" in length and are highly ribbed. This is a plant, like the even rarer trillium, that IS NOT TO BE PICKED as it will not, without allowing its blossom to cycle through, regenerate itself. Consider yourself fortunate when you spot this beauty in the woods. The pink Lady slippers prefer to be in acidic soil, and, thus, are the most common Lady slippers to be found throughout Nova Scotia; more frequently, to be found west of the Halifax/Truro line. The pink Lady slipper is one of the earlier wildflowers and blossom only for a couple of short weeks. Look for this pink beauty around the beginning of June.
There are three other Lady sippers which can also be spotted in Nova Scotia, though more difficult to come by: the Yellow Lady Slipper, the Ramshead Lady Slipper and the Showy Lady Slipper.

Pink Lady Slipper

Pink Lady Slipper

Pink Lady Slipper

Pink Lady Slipper

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Peter Landry

2011 (2019)