Distribution: Widely distributed on both sides of the Cascades crest in Washington; Alaska to California, east to the Rocky Mountains, east across Canada to the Great Lakes region and eastern North America.
Habitat: Mostly in cool, deep shade of moist forests in soil rich in humus, sea level to mid-elevations in the mountains.
Flowers: March-June
Origin: Native
Growth Duration: Perennial
Conservation Status: Not of concern
Glabrous, perennial herbs from an ovoid corm, the stems upright, 5-20 cm. tall.
Leaves 1, produced at the top of the corm in the fall and persisting over the winter, withering in the summer; leaf blade longer than the petiole, broadly ovate-elliptic to oblong-ovate, 3-6 cm. long; scape with 2-3 bracts.
Flowers usually single; 3 sepals and 2 petals alike, erect, 15-22 mm. long, lanceolate, magenta with 3 deeper-colored veins; third petal a pendant, saccate lip, somewhat longer than the other petals and about 10 mm. wide, yellowish-purple or reddish-purple, streaked inside the sac with brownish-purple; stamens and style fused to form a magenta column over the opening to the lip.
Capsule about 1 cm. long.
Publication: Nat. Hist. Vermont. 1: 200. 1842.
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var. americana – calypso, fairy-slipper, Venus-slipper
Occurring east of the Cascades crest in Washington; Alaska to Washington, east to the Rocky Mountains, east across Canada to the Great Lakes region and eastern North America. -
var. occidentalis – calypso, fairy-slipper, Venus-slipper Widely distributed on both sides of the Cascades crest in Washington; Alaska to California, east to Idaho and Montana.
PNW Herbaria: Specimen records of Calypso bulbosa in the Consortium of Pacific Northwest Herbaria database
WA Flora Checklist: Calypso bulbosa checklist entry
OregonFlora: Calypso bulbosa information
E-Flora BC: Calypso bulbosa atlas page
CalPhotos: Calypso bulbosa photos
