Yellow lady's-slipper

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Yellow lady's-slipper flowers

Yellow lady's-slipper

Yellow lady's-slipper flower

Yellow lady's-slipper flowers

Yellow lady's-slipper

Yellow lady's-slipper habit

Yellow lady's-slipper leaves

Morphology

Stem

Plants glandular-pubescent; from rhizomes. Flowering stems erect, green, simple.

Leaves

3-6, cauline, alternate; blade ovate-lanceolate, 2 to 8.2 inches long, .8 to 4.2 inches wide, parallel-veined, margins entire, base narrowed to sheathing petiole, apex acute.

Inflorescence

Terminal, flowers 1-2; bracts green, conspicuous, ovate-lanceolate, 1.4 to 4.2 inches long, .2 to 1 inch wide, apex acuminate; pedicel .2- to 1.2 inch.

Flower

Sepals 3, green to greenish brown or yellow, usually minutely reddish brown-spotted, petal-like, spreading, abaxial sepal ovate-lanceolate, .4 to 3.2 inches long, .4 to .8 inch wide, usually undulate, not twisted, lateral sepals fused, .8 to 3 inches long, .25 to .7 inch wide; petals 3, distinct, abaxial petal modified as a lip that is different from other petals in form and color; lateral petals green to greenish brown or yellow, spreading, linear-lanceolate, 1.2 to 3.6 inches long, .12 to .5 inch wide, often spirally twisted or undulate, sometimes flat; lip yellow, inside often purple spotted or veined, rarely with reddish spots on outer external surface, inflated, slipper-like, .6 to 2.2 inches; stamens 2, fused to style and stigmas to form column subtended by lip; pistil 1, 3-carpellate; stigmas usually 3-lobed.

Fruit

Capsules, erect, ellipsoid, .8 to1.4 inch; seeds numerous, dust-like, wind-dispersed.

Ecology

Habitat

Rich, oak-hickory and maple-basswood forests

Distribution

East 1/5 of Kansas

Practical Information

Uses

Native Americans steeped the roots and took the tea for nervousness, lack of energy, colds, and flu.

Additional Notes

Synonyms

Alternative scientific names that have been used for this plant.