Cypripedium calceolusL.

Lady's-slipper orchid

WFO wfo-0000935209 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Cypripedium calceolus, photographed by Paweł Zuzelski
fig. a Paweł Zuzelski, CC BY 4.0 / 2022-06-12 / obs. 205392932
Cypripedium calceolus, photographed by Mattia Menchetti
fig. b Mattia Menchetti, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 204836485
Cypripedium calceolus, photographed by Mattia Menchetti
fig. c Mattia Menchetti, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 204841356
Cypripedium calceolus, photographed by Mattia Menchetti
fig. d Mattia Menchetti, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 204758389
Cypripedium calceolus, photographed by Нурхайдарова Татьяна
fig. e Нурхайдарова Татьяна, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 204412761
Cypripedium calceolus, photographed by Нурхайдарова Татьяна
fig. f Нурхайдарова Татьяна, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 203238087
Cypripedium calceolus, photographed by Оксана Серикова
fig. g Оксана Серикова, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 203453631
Cypripedium calceolus, photographed by Оксана Серикова
fig. h Оксана Серикова, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 203447472

Every figure is a research-grade observation under CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA, rehosted with the photographer’s name, the licence and the observation it came from. Photographs under a NonCommercial licence are excluded from this site and are never stored, which costs us a great many pictures and is not negotiable.

Native range 45 botanical countries

Regions where Cypripedium calceolus is native: Algeria, Altay, Amur, Buryatiya, Chita, Inner Mongolia, Irkutsk, Japan, Khabarovsk, Korea, Krasnoyarsk, Manchuria, Mongolia, Primorye, Sakhalin, Tuva, West Siberia, Yakutiya, Austria, Baltic States, Belarus, Bulgaria, Central European Russia, Czechia-Slovakia, Denmark, East European Russia, Finland, France, Germany, Great Britain, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Krym, North European Russia, Northwest European Russia, Norway, NW. Balkan Pen., Poland, Romania, South European Russia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Ukraine AlgeriaAltayAmurBuryatiyaChitaInner MongoliaIrkutskJapanKhabarovskKrasnoyarskManchuriaMongoliaPrimoryeSakhalinTuvaWest SiberiaYakutiyaAustriaBaltic StatesBelarusBulgariaCentral European RussiaCzechia-SlovakiaDenmarkEast European RussiaFinlandFranceGermanyGreeceHungaryItalyKrymNorth European RussiaNorthwest European RussiaNorwayNW. Balkan Pen.PolandRomaniaSouth European RussiaSpainSwedenSwitzerlandUkraine Korea
Native distribution of Cypripedium calceolus, after Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants. Introduced, extinct and doubtful records are excluded, so this is where the plant is from, not everywhere it now grows. Regions too small to draw at this scale are marked with a dot.
RegionTDWG codeContinent
Austria AUT EUROPE
Baltic States BLT
Belarus BLR
Bulgaria BUL
Central European Russia RUC
Czechia-Slovakia CZE
Denmark DEN
East European Russia RUE
Finland FIN
France FRA
Germany GER
Great Britain GRB
Greece GRC
Hungary HUN
Italy ITA
Krym KRY
North European Russia RUN
Northwest European Russia RUW
Norway NOR
NW. Balkan Pen. YUG
Poland POL
Romania ROM
South European Russia RUS
Spain SPA
Sweden SWE
Switzerland SWI
Ukraine UKR
Altay ALT ASIA-TEMPERATE
Amur AMU
Buryatiya BRY
Chita CTA
Inner Mongolia CHI
Irkutsk IRK
Japan JAP
Khabarovsk KHA
Korea KOR
Krasnoyarsk KRA
Manchuria CHM
Mongolia MON
Primorye PRM
Sakhalin SAK
Tuva TVA
West Siberia WSB
Yakutiya YAK
Algeria ALG AFRICA

Not drawn on the map: Great Britain. We hold no public-domain boundary for this region, so it is listed rather than guessed at.

Region boundaries approximated from Natural Earth (public domain) and mapped to TDWG World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions (WGSRPD) level-3 botanical countries (Brummitt 2001). Indicative, not the official WGSRPD geometry.

Flowering 1,253 in flower of 1,460 examined

Peak flowering in May. Each bar is the share of Cypripedium calceolus observations in which someone actually recorded the reproductive state and found the plant in flower, not the raw number of flowering records. That distinction matters: people observe plants far more in spring than in winter, so a bare count of flowering records partly measures when people go outside. Dividing by the number examined removes that. 1,253 of 1,460 examined observations were in flower, every one of them research grade. The whisker on each bar is a 95% Wilson interval. 5 months have fewer than 5 examined observations, so no proportion is drawn for them. This is still a global aggregate and not a forecast for your garden: the same species flowers on different dates in different hemispheres. Where a species has fewer than 30 flowering records we do not draw this chart at all. Computed from 10.15468/dl.cgje2x.

Also published as 19 synonyms

A synonym is not an error. It is a record of botanists disagreeing, in print, about where this plant belongs. Each of these was somebody’s considered answer.

  • Calceolus alternifolius St.-Lag.
  • Calceolus marianus Crantz
  • Cypripedilon marianus (Crantz) Rouy
  • Cypripedium alternifolium St.-Lag.
  • Cypripedium atsmori C.Morren
  • Cypripedium boreale Salisb.
  • Cypripedium calceolus f. grandifolium Bolzon
  • Cypripedium calceolus f. triflorum Rouy
  • Cypripedium calceolus prol. biflorum Rouy
  • Cypripedium calceolus var. bellum Chmiel
  • Cypripedium calceolus var. biflorum Rouy
  • Cypripedium calceolus var. citrina B.Hergt
  • Cypripedium calceolus var. citrinum B.Hergt
  • Cypripedium calceolus var. viridiflora M.Schulze
  • Cypripedium calceolus var. viridiflorum M.Schulze
  • Cypripedium cruciatum Dulac
  • Cypripedium ferrugineum Gray
  • Cypripedium guttatum subsp. microsaccos (Kraenzl.) Soó
  • Cypripedium microsaccos Kraenzl.

Sourcesevery claim on this page

  1. World Flora Online Plant List. accepted name, authority, classification. CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-12.
  2. iNaturalist. photographs and flowering annotations, CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA only. per photograph. Retrieved 2026-06-27.
  3. Wikidata. common name (P1843), joined on the World Flora Online identifier (P7715). CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-13.
  4. Kew, World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP v16). native distribution by TDWG level-3 botanical country, and life form. CC BY 3.0. Retrieved 2026-06-04.

We publish what we can source and we say so when we cannot. This page has no care advice and no toxicity claim, because we do not yet have those from a source we can cite.