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Sparrow's-egg lady's-slipper

Cypripedium passerinum

Also called Franklin's Lady's Slipper, Franklin’s Lady’s Slipper, Northern Lady's Slipper, Small White Lady's Slipper, Sparrowegg Lady's Slipper

Sparrow's-egg lady's-slipper
Photo: Jason Hollinger, CC BY 2.0

Sparrow's-egg lady's-slipper is a small, hardy wild orchid of cold northern forests, tundra and streambanks, with white flowers and a spotted pouch. It is a challenging species to grow in gardens and is best left in the wild or its native habitat.

Family
Orchidaceae (Orchid family)
Grows as
Orchid
Light
Part shade
Water
Keep the soil consistently moist but not waterlogged, as it grows in moist natural habitats.
Soil
Cool, moist, humus-rich soil, ideally calcareous or limey.
Temperature
Very cold-hardy; tolerates severe northern winters, with summer growth in cool conditions.
How easy
Hard
Native range
Alaska to Canada, Montana
Climate
temperate

About

Cypripedium passerinum is a species of lady's slipper orchid known by the common names sparrow's-egg lady's-slipper, spotted lady's-slipper, and Franklin's lady's-slipper.

Where it grows

This species grows farther north than other Cypripedium. It grows in moist spruce forests at low elevations, tundra, dunes, and river terraces, lakeshores, and streambanks. It often grows on calcareous substrates. It is associated with plants such as white spruce (Picea glauca), Engelmann spruce (P. engelmannii), western redcedar (Thuja occidentalis), red-osier dogwood (Cornus sericea), willows (Salix spp.), horsetail (Equisetum spp.), longtube twinflower (Linnaea borealis), sedges (Carex spp.), one-sided pyrola (Orthilia secunda), and moss carpet (Pleurozium schreberi).

Other Cypripedium plants

Pink lady's slipper · Ram's head lady's slipper · Lady's-slipper orchid · California lady's slipper · White lady's-slipper · Dickinson's lady's slipper · Elegant Cypripedium · Clustered lady's slipper · Yellow Cypripedium · Formosa's lady's slipper · Franchet's Cypripedium · Spotted lady's slipper

Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Cypripedium passerinum by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.

The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.

Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.

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