June Blooms: Pink Lady’s Slipper

Pink Lady's Slipper (photo by Dianne Machesney)

I almost missed my chance this month to show you the most beautiful flower I’ve ever found in the woods.  The last time I saw one was in late May of 2006.  They bloom in June as well.

This is Pink Lady’s Slipper, a member of the orchid family that’s so rare it’s listed as endangered in some states.  That’s because it grows very slowly, deer love to eat it and people dig it up for their gardens.  Sadly, transplanting kills this plant because it won’t grow without a special woodland fungus in the soil around it.  If left alone these plants can live for 20 years.

Pink Lady’s Slipper is my secret plant.  Even where not endangered, I don’t tell the world its location because I’m afraid someone will steal it.  It’s a treasure in the woods.

(photo by Dianne Machesney)

3 thoughts on “June Blooms: Pink Lady’s Slipper

  1. That is an exquisite flower. I can see why you treasure it. The colors are so pretty.
    Thanks for this photo treat.

  2. As a child I went berry picking in the woods around where we lived in Gibsonia & my mother would never dig up flowers or anything except pick berries. She said it wasn’t good to take them home because the woods was their home. And she never did. She grew all her flowers from seeds she bought or what friends provided. Interesting in that we should all follow those rules now that everything seems to be ignored by “humans”. That is a pretty flower. Don’t remember seeing that. Of course my “childhood” is a long ago thing now. Faith C.

  3. I remember these flowers growing in the woods in New Hampshire when I was a child I thought I had found one of God”s natural treasures and would look for them growing amonst the trillium. They still mystify me to this day. Thank you God for this secret jewell.

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