''Cypripedium passerinum'' is a species of

lady's slipper Cypripedioideae is a subfamily of orchids commonly known as lady's slipper orchids, lady slipper orchids or slipper orchids. Cypripedioideae includes the genera '' Cypripedium, Mexipedium, Paphiopedilum, Phragmipedium'' and ''Selenipedium''. T ...

orchid Orchids are plants that belong to the family Orchidaceae (), a diverse and widespread group of flowering plants with blooms that are often colourful and fragrant. Along with the Asteraceae, they are one of the two largest families of flowering ...

known by the common names sparrow's-egg lady's-slipper, spotted lady's-slipper, and Franklin's lady's-slipper.

Description

This orchid is a

rhizomatous In botany and dendrology, a rhizome (; , ) is a modified subterranean plant stem that sends out roots and shoots from its nodes. Rhizomes are also called creeping rootstalks or just rootstalks. Rhizomes develop from axillary buds and grow ho ...

monocot Monocotyledons (), commonly referred to as monocots, (Lilianae ''sensu'' Chase & Reveal) are grass and grass-like flowering plants (angiosperms), the seeds of which typically contain only one embryonic leaf, or cotyledon. They constitute one of ...

perennial A perennial plant or simply perennial is a plant that lives more than two years. The term ('' per-'' + '' -ennial'', "through the years") is often used to differentiate a plant from shorter-lived annuals and biennials. The term is also wide ...

herb growing to a maximum height around . There are 3 to 7 oval or

lance A lance is a spear designed to be used by a mounted warrior or cavalry soldier ( lancer). In ancient and medieval warfare, it evolved into the leading weapon in cavalry charges, and was unsuited for throwing or for repeated thrusting, unlike si ...

-shaped leaves arranged alternately on the stem, each up to long by wide. The herbage is hairy and sticky. The

inflorescence An inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a stem that is composed of a main branch or a complicated arrangement of branches. Morphologically, it is the modified part of the shoot of seed plants where flowers are formed o ...

at the top of the stem contains one or two flowers. The flower has a dorsal

sepal A sepal () is a part of the flower of angiosperms (flowering plants). Usually green, sepals typically function as protection for the flower in bud, and often as support for the petals when in bloom., p. 106 The term ''sepalum'' was coined b ...

covering the petals and two lateral sepals. There are three petals: two flat white petals on either side and one central petal modified into a white or pink-tinged pouch with purplish spotting at the lip and inside, which is said to resemble a sparrow's egg. The fruit is a capsule. The plant may reproduce by seed but it more often reproduces

vegetatively Vegetative reproduction (also known as vegetative propagation, vegetative multiplication or cloning) is any form of asexual reproduction occurring in plants in which a new plant grows from a fragment or cutting of the parent plant or spec ...

by sending up more stems from the rhizome.

Habitat

This species grows farther north than other ''

Cypripedium ''Cypripedium'' is a genus of 58 species and nothospecies of hardy Orchidaceae, orchids; it is one of five genera that together compose the subfamily of lady's slipper orchids (Cypripedioideae). They are widespread across much of the Northern He ...

''. It grows in moist spruce forests at low elevations,

tundra In physical geography, tundra () is a type of biome where tree growth is hindered by frigid temperatures and short growing seasons. The term ''tundra'' comes through Russian (') from the Kildin Sámi word (') meaning "uplands", "treeless moun ...

dune A dune is a landform composed of wind- or water-driven sand. It typically takes the form of a mound, ridge, or hill. An area with dunes is called a dune system or a dune complex. A large dune complex is called a dune field, while broad, f ...

s, and river terraces, lakeshores, and streambanks. It often grows on

calcareous Calcareous () is an adjective meaning "mostly or partly composed of calcium carbonate", in other words, containing lime or being chalky. The term is used in a wide variety of scientific disciplines. In zoology ''Calcareous'' is used as an adje ...

substrates. It is associated with plants such as

white spruce White spruce is a common name for several species of spruce (''Picea'') and may refer to: * ''Picea glauca'', native to most of Canada and Alaska with limited populations in the northeastern United States * ''Picea engelmannii'', native to the Ro ...

(''Picea glauca''),

Engelmann spruce ''Picea engelmannii'', with the common names Engelmann spruce, white spruce, mountain spruce, and silver spruce, is a species of spruce native to western North America. It is mostly a high-altitude mountain tree but also appears in watered canyon ...

(''P. engelmannii''),

western redcedar ''Thuja plicata'' is an evergreen coniferous tree in the cypress family Cupressaceae, native to western North America. Its common name is western redcedar (western red cedar in the UK), and it is also called Pacific redcedar, giant arborvitae, w ...

(''Thuja occidentalis''),

red-osier dogwood ''Cornus sericea'', the red osier or red-osier dogwood, is a species of flowering plant in the family (biology), family Cornaceae, native to much of North America. It has sometimes been considered a synonym of the Asian species ''Cornus alba''. ...

(''Cornus sericea''),

willow Willows, also called sallows and osiers, from the genus ''Salix'', comprise around 400 speciesMabberley, D.J. 1997. The Plant Book, Cambridge University Press #2: Cambridge. of typically deciduous trees and shrubs, found primarily on moist s ...

s (''Salix'' spp.),

horsetail ''Equisetum'' (; horsetail, snake grass, puzzlegrass) is the only living genus in Equisetaceae, a family of ferns, which reproduce by spores rather than seeds. ''Equisetum'' is a "living fossil", the only living genus of the entire subclass Eq ...

(''Equisetum'' spp.), longtube twinflower (''Linnaea borealis''),

sedges The Cyperaceae are a family of graminoid (grass-like), monocotyledonous flowering plants known as sedges. The family is large, with some 5,500 known species described in about 90 genera, the largest being the "true sedges" genus ''Carex'' wit ...

(''Carex'' spp.), one-sided pyrola (''Orthilia secunda''), and moss carpet (''Pleurozium schreberi'').

Range

''Cypripedium passerinum'' is native to northern North America. It is widespread in Canada from British Columbia to Quebec, as well as all three northern territories. It also is found

Alaska Alaska ( ; russian: Аляска, Alyaska; ale, Alax̂sxax̂; ; ems, Alas'kaaq; Yup'ik: ''Alaskaq''; tli, Anáaski) is a state located in the Western United States on the northwest extremity of North America. A semi-exclave of the U.S., ...

and in the

Rocky Mountains The Rocky Mountains, also known as the Rockies, are a major mountain range and the largest mountain system in North America. The Rocky Mountains stretch in straight-line distance from the northernmost part of western Canada, to New Mexico in ...

Montana Montana () is a state in the Mountain West division of the Western United States. It is bordered by Idaho to the west, North Dakota and South Dakota to the east, Wyoming to the south, and the Canadian provinces of Alberta, British Columbi ...

, including inside Glacier National Park.

Importance to the ecosystem

Little is known about the importance of ''C. passerinum'' to the ecosystem. In some studies, it has been noted that insects (e.g.,

moth Moths are a paraphyletic group of insects that includes all members of the order Lepidoptera that are not butterflies, with moths making up the vast majority of the order. There are thought to be approximately 160,000 species of moth, many of w ...

sawfly Sawflies are the insects of the suborder Symphyta within the order Hymenoptera, alongside ants, bees, and wasps. The common name comes from the saw-like appearance of the ovipositor, which the females use to cut into the plants where they lay ...

, and a

leaf miner A leaf miner is any one of numerous species of insects in which the larval stage lives in, and eats, the leaf tissue of plants. The vast majority of leaf-mining insects are moths (Lepidoptera), sawflies (Symphyta, the mother clade of wasps), ...

) have fed on them. Bees have been identified to pollinate other ''Cypripedium'' however unlike other ''Cypripedium'', ''C. passerinum'' is self pollinating and therefore does not require a pollinator for reproduction. A variety of species grow with the sparrow's-egg lady-slipper, such as ''

Linnaea borealis ''Linnaea borealis'' is a species of flowering plant in the family Caprifoliaceae (the honeysuckle family). Until 2013, it was the only species in the genus ''Linnaea''. It is a boreal to subarctic woodland subshrub, commonly known as twinflower ...

'', '' Carex concinna'', ''

Orthilia secunda ''Orthilia'' is a genus of flowering plants in the family Ericaceae. It has only one species, ''Orthilia secunda''. Its common names are sidebells wintergreen, one-sided-wintergreen and serrated-wintergreen. It is also called one-sided pyrola, on ...

'', and ''

Pleurozium schreberi ''Pleurozium schreberi'', the red-stemmed feathermoss or Schreber's big red stem moss, is a moss with a loose growth pattern. The root name ''pleuro'' comes from the Latin for ribs, possibly describing how the parts branch from the stem. The spe ...

.''

Conservation

''Cypripedium passerinum'' is an extremely rare plant in certain areas. Its highly specific habitat requirements contribute to its risk of extinction. In the United States, ''C. passerinum'' is only found in two states, Alaska and Montana, and in locations that are threatened by oil and gas exploration. In Canada, it has been found in Wagner Natural Area outside of

Edmonton Edmonton ( ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Alberta. Edmonton is situated on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Metropolitan Region, which is surrounded by Alberta's central region. The city ancho ...

, where efforts are ongoing to use

microsatellite A microsatellite is a tract of repetitive DNA in which certain DNA motifs (ranging in length from one to six or more base pairs) are repeated, typically 5–50 times. Microsatellites occur at thousands of locations within an organism's genome. ...

s for its conservation.

References

External links

* * {{Taxonbar, from=Q846428 passerinum Plants described in 1823 Orchids of Canada Orchids of the United States Flora of Alaska Flora of Quebec