Photos and Characteristics of Wetland Plant Species > This Category

Calypso bulbosa ~ fairy slipper orchid

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Characteristics:

• FACW

• Michigan C Value: 10

• mostly mesic coniferous forests

• white cedar groves

• old beach dune ridges under conifers near the shores of the Great Lakes

• usually somewhat shaded

• lip is strongly lined with deep purplish, spotted toward the white apron and yellow apical beard

• single smooth oval leaf 0.75 to 1.25 inches wide, 1 to 2.25 inches long, on slender stem from an underground bulb like base

• leaf flares openly out over the ground, pleated along parallel veins and wrinkled across surface and edges

• solitary basal leaf in the autumn, which overwinters and then senesces soon after flowering

• solitary flower on short stalk

• petite native orchid; State Listed as Threatened in Michigan