Cypripedium orchid – The wild beauty of the woods

• bentehaarstad

The scandinavian wild orchids have just started to blossom. At least some of them, like the magnificent The Lady’s Slipper Orchid (Cypripedium calceolus). In Norway it is given the name Marisko and it is among the 11 wild orchid species that are protected. And it needs this protection, because of it’s beauty people have sampled them to make a nice bouquet, or to plant them in their garden. Forestry and urbanization are other threats. In Britain this plant is so rare that the police is protecting the few remaining plants.

The Lady’s slipper is rare even in Norway, but not that rare. They are still to be found some places, and I went 200 km to find these ones, in the county of Nord-Trøndelag. I have visited them many times before, but it was well worth the trip to go again. There are many more photos of  The Lady’s Slipper Orchid in my photo gallery.

45 thoughts on “Cypripedium orchid – The wild beauty of the woods”

  2. What beautiful flowers and images, I have never seen these in the wild and am very envious! I appreciate your efforts to bring them to me,
    best wishes,
    Theresa

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  4. Beautiful. I couldn’t believe this kind of Orchid still making carpet of flowers !
    To the third photo, did you used flash or reflector ?
    —– pretty good effect (a bit over in my taste though 😉 )

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  20. The yellow Lady Slipper is very rare here in Maine also, Bente, but we often found them growing near our home when we lived in Sweden, Maine, which ironically, is but a few miles from Norway, Maine.

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  27. These are my favorite orchids, wild and rare, in the woods. It’s great to see how they’re thriving near you. Thank you for making my day!

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  32. They are lovely! Maine has yellow ones somewhere. I have never seen one. But we have lots of pinks ones in the woods behind the house. I have always thought ours were protected, but just found out they are not that rare, here.

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  34. Wow, they are beautiful! I still remember when you wrote about how long it takes for nature to come back to live after winter and now this 🙂 Only a few days ago, my mom told me on the phone that there seems to be some wild orchids growing in a tree not far away from their house. I’ll be visiting my parents in about two weeks and now even more curious to see if it’s true and I can find them.

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  40. Thank you so much for these beautiful photos. It is wonderful news that Lady Slipper still thrives, somewhere in the world! Before the Pilgrims, Lady Slipper did thrive in New England. Due to it’s medicinal properties and the Pilgrims lack of foresight, they are now extremely rare, and protected. I’ve seen 2, in the wild, in my lifetime, and I’m nearly 60.

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  41. Would you believe we have some areas here in Michigan where you can find clusters of 20-30 of these in a group? They aren’t all that common here either, but in areas where they do appear, they can really thrive.

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