Cypripedium acaule
Stemless Lady's Slipper ( Cypripedium acaule )
The Stemless Lady's Slipper ( Cypripedium acaule ), also called Rosablütiger Lady's Slipper, is a North American plant of the genus Cypripedium in the orchid family ( Orchidaceae).
Features
The Stemless Lady's Slipper is a perennial plant with a rhizome, which reaches stature heights of 20 to 45 centimeters. It develop two leaves that arise directly from the rhizome. They are oval and measure 10 to 28 × 5 to 15 centimeters. The flowers appear singly in the leafless, arising between the two sheets inflorescence. The outer and inner tepals are shorter than the lip and yellowish green to purple. The lateral petals are narrow and slightly twisted. The coloring of the lip ranges from white with red veins rose up. The lip is elongate oval - shaped, 3 to 7 inches long, the opening is a narrow slot along the top thereof. The Staminodium is rounded square shaped driven to rhombic.
Bloom time is from April to June.
Reproduction
The effort that only Stemless women shoes for their reproductive success, has been studied for several years by a team of botanists from Boston University. Object of study was a population in hardwood forests in the eastern part of the U.S. state of Massachusetts. Flower stems, flowering and reproductive organs make up 18 percent of a dried plant. The effort that an average-size plant operates to successfully attract bumblebees to be fertilized and then to produce a seed pod which a few thousands of tiny seeds, reduces the likelihood that this plant blooms next year, five to sixteen percent. A successful breeding season can affect a plant's growth for the next four years.
Occurrence
The Stemless Lady's Slipper comes in warm to temperate North America in dry to wet woods, swamps and heaths at altitudes 0-1200 meters in front. It grows on strongly acidic soils.
Use
The Stemless Lady's Slipper is rarely used as an ornamental plant for containers. The species is in cultivation since at least 1786.