[ click on any image below to see larger version ]
Family: Orchidaceae (Orchid family)
Mid-Atlantic bloom time:
April - May
Mid-Atlantic fruit ripe:
August
The species name acaule is Latin, meaning, "stem less", which refers to the plant's leafless flowering stem.
Pink Lady's Slipper is highly dependent on a fungus in the soil from the Rhizoctonia genus. It requires this fungus to germinate and to symbiotically exchange nutrients, so it is ill-advised to ever attempt to transplant a specimen.
According to a USDA Forest Service webpage (2014),
"The root of lady's slipper was used as a remedy for nervousness, tooth pain, and muscle spasms. In the 1800s and 1900s it, and other orchids, were widely used as a substitute for the European plant valerian for sedative properties."
|
12 May 2012
Bull Run Mountains Natural Area Preserve, Haymarket, VA 
|
10 May 2014
Bull Run Mountains Natural Area Preserve, Haymarket, VA 
|
12 May 2011
Shenandoah National Park, VA 
|
12 May 2012
Bull Run Mountains Natural Area Preserve, Haymarket, VA 
|
|
10 May 2014
Bull Run Mountains Natural Area Preserve, Haymarket, VA 
|
22 April 2022
Bull Run Mountains Natural Area Preserve, Haymarket, VA (emerging flower bud) 
|
10 July 2021
Elizabeth Furnace, George Washington National Forest, Fort Valley, VA (developing seed pod) 
|