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Wooded meadow with lady's slippers

 

Lady's slipper

Kaunis kuldking

Cypripedium calceolus

 

The most beautiful of all native orchids has started flowering in sunny spots. Habitats are wooded meadows, broadleaved forests and alvar forests.

 

All nature friends recognise the flower of the lady’s slipper’s; the leaves of the plant remind of lily-of-the-valley leaves but they are a little sturdier. The flowers are one or two on short-haired stalks, rarely three. The plant flowers only after 10-15 years. Only a few bee species are capable of pollinating the flower, and generally only about ¼ of the flowers set fruit.