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Re: [SG] Just bought a plant

On Mon, 29 Jun 1998, Tim Wilson wrote:

>     Don't mean to start this round table again but here is the
> importance of scientific name versus common name. You call your plant a
> Yellow ladys' slipper but give the scientific name Cypripedium
> parviflorum pubescens. AHS A-Z calls their Yellow lady's slipper a
> Cypripedium calceolus.

There are a number of slightly morphologically different and circumboreal
yellow ladyslippers, and taxonomically they've been treated in several
ways.  The nomenclature I happen to prefer is C. calceolus for the
European species, C. kentuckiense for the giant form, C. pubescens for the
more common woodland plant in the eastern US and C. parviflorum for the
smaller, shorter, twisted sepal form in the eastern US.  These orchids are
fairly promiscuous...  they hybridize naturally with other Cypripedium
species, and some of the hybrid forms resemble C. parviflorum.

For more information on these, see Phillip Cribb's book on Cypripedium,
Charles Sheviak's papers, materials by Carson Whitlow (mainly in the
various orchid society proceedings), or our paper on the hybrid forms
of Iowa prairies (Klier, Leoschke and Wendel, 1991. J. Hered. 82:305-318).

As far as horticulture goes, each species and each of the hybrid types
are adapted to fairly specific amounts of shade, soil moisture, and
soil pH.  Most of the yellow ladyslippers are dug from the wild (i.e.,
often stolen from public lands) rather than commercially propagated,
and rarely survive cultivation attempts for more than a few years.

Kay Lancaster    kay@fern.com
just west of Portland, OR; USDA zone 8 (polarfleece)
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