# Cypripedium acuale in-situ



## mrhappyrotter (Feb 8, 2013)

I was reviewing some old photos and came across a set of pics I took a few years ago. At the time, I had never seen a cyp in the wild, so imagine my absolute amazement when I was at one of the local parks and happened upon an area that was covered in hundreds or maybe even thousands of flowering acuales.

These photos were taken in mid-April with my old camera, so the image quality isn't that great.


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## SlipperKing (Feb 8, 2013)

Totally awsome!


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## mrhappyrotter (Feb 8, 2013)

Thanks Rick. I just got a new camera so my plan is to go back to that spot this year to take some higher res and better quality photos.

These were growing next to a large lake when I took the pics. Since then, the lake has been partially drained. I'm curious how that will affect growth and flowering.


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## SlipperFan (Feb 8, 2013)

What a joy to discover these!


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## cnycharles (Feb 8, 2013)

nice pics. they do have quite a range.... i think you can find them up into the arctic circle, or maybe it's some stunted yellows that grow up that far


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## NYEric (Feb 8, 2013)

ONce I went with Charles to see some and they were growing in a hot dry spot so I think they will do OK with the lake being drained. Fingers crossed.


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## Eric Muehlbauer (Feb 8, 2013)

They definitely like it dry. My acaules in LI do very well without any additional water.


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## mrhappyrotter (Feb 9, 2013)

Eric Muehlbauer said:


> They definitely like it dry. My acaules in LI do very well without any additional water.



I'm hopeful. I didn't make it back to that location last year to check up on them, so it's hard to say how well this population has done with the relatively sudden change in conditions.

Acuale actually seems to grow all over the place around here -- since discovering that population I've encountered them at multiple locations. I'm surprised it took me so long to locate one in the wild. Since discovering that population, I've actually noticed lots of non-blooming plants at other locations as well, but not in such a high density.

Around here, I see lots of Goodyera pubescens, Tipularia discolor, several species of Spiranthes and Liparis lilifolia.

I'm always on the look out for cyp. pubescens, which is supposed to be native to this area, but as of yet, I've never seen one outside of private gardens.

The first time I saw acuale in bloom was at Breckinridge orchids in Greensboro, NC circa 2003/2004. Mark had acquired a number of flats of them that were collected legally from various construction sites in the area.

The plants I photographed represented the first time I saw them in the wild.


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## KyushuCalanthe (Feb 9, 2013)

Hey Grand Chupacabra, do you know if the lake is natural? C. acaule doesn't need a subterranean water source to be happy. It is likely that population has been there longer than the lake itself, assuming the lake is artificial. This was the first wild orchid species I ever saw - around 40 years ago in southern New York. This species is pretty uncommon in the piedmont regions, especially nowadays. The mountains have sizable populations.

Did you mean Liparis lilifolia?

Charles, it is recorded up to extreme northeastern corner of Alberta around 60 N latitude, and perhaps up to the Northwest Territories, but still south of the Arctic Circle (which is a tad north of 66 degrees).


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## biothanasis (Feb 9, 2013)

Great pics! 

Is that an alba form in the 3rd picture?


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## tonyw (Feb 9, 2013)

Beautiful pictures of a super plant. We were looking at them in the Algonquin Park in Ontario last spring,nothing like that many.


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## Bernd_S (Feb 9, 2013)

Great photos! Pictures of sites are far too rare, but often give many clues!


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## mrhappyrotter (Feb 9, 2013)

KyushuCalanthe said:


> Did you mean Liparis lilifolia?



Yes, good catch. I definitely meant Liparis lilifolia.


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## mrhappyrotter (Feb 9, 2013)

KyushuCalanthe said:


> Hey Grand Chupacabra, do you know if the lake is natural?



Good point. I'm not actually sure, there are lots of natural lakes & large bodies of water around here but also a number of man-made lakes as well.


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## gonewild (Feb 9, 2013)

mrhappyrotter said:


>



This is a great photo! 
The flower seems to be looking at the pinecone and saying "Whaaat happened?"


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## Cheyenne (Feb 9, 2013)

I like the picture of the alba form. That is not often seen. There is a park about twenty minutes from me that has about a thousand of them growing. I saw an alba there once.


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## cnycharles (Feb 9, 2013)

KyushuCalanthe said:


> Charles, it is recorded up to extreme northeastern corner of Alberta around 60 N latitude, and perhaps up to the Northwest Territories, but still south of the Arctic Circle (which is a tad north of 66 degrees).



okay, thank you. could be memory is of something that grows 'near' the arctic circle, or swapping with another orchid

a very quick search listed cyps passerinum, guttatum and coeloglossum viride as living north of the line


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## Dido (Feb 9, 2013)

Nice pics thanks for sharing


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## KyushuCalanthe (Feb 9, 2013)

Couple things - the plant that folks think might be an alba is not, but rather one with immature flowers. The lips all start out white and pink up rapidly as they expand. The alba flowered plant is indeed rare, in the southern end of this plant's range in particular - in have seen thousands of specimens from southern New York state through the mountains to northern Georgia over a 30 year period and never saw one true alba flower (lucky you Cheyenne!). They become much more frequent in New England.

One other clarification - I meant to say that C. parviflorum v. pubescens is uncommon in the piedmont region and much more common in the mountains, not C. acaule. C. acaule seems to be rare only along the coastal plain, especially in Virginia, North Carolina, and most especially in South Carolina where it is recorded from Georgetown County, south of Myrtle Beach! I've heard that populations in Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio as well have always been rare, probably due in large part to the sweet soils of the midwest.


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## Cheyenne (Feb 9, 2013)

The spot I have seen them is in Delaware, near a pond with pretty wet soil. It is a lot of forest debris broken down, looks kind of muddy. Someone from my orchid society goes every year to a spot in Pennsylvania where there is acule. I have not gone yet. They say that there is alba acule there. They thought someone stole them because one year the alba was not there. But then the next year it was back so it must of skipped a year. I have also heard of a site in Maryland but I cannot remember the exact area. 

Someone else told me that cyp. Candidum (I think) grows in the Susquehanna area in Maryland. I cannot confirm this. Does anyone else know? Also I have been looking in Maryland for cyp regine, one of the people my wife works with sent here a picture of a wierd flower they didn't know what it was. When she showed it to me it was definitely regine. Does anyone else know of it growing here. I was to go hunting this spring so I am trying to find out what grows in my area. Any help would be appreciated.


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## KyushuCalanthe (Feb 9, 2013)

Hey Cheyenne, from what I've heard C. reginae is either critically endangered or extirpated in Maryland these days. I'd look in Garret County in The Glades peatland since it has appropriate habitat still. Not to dampen your interest, but C. reginae has undergone great range restriction over the last 40 years, in your region in particular. For example, prior to 1980 Pennsylvania had 11 counties with known populations and with only 4 counties sited afterward. Who knows what's left today. Habitat modification coupled with deer populations totally out of control seem to be the main reasons for the loss.

See this thread about the Maryland population of C. candidum:

http://www.slippertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=12161&highlight=cypripedium+candidum


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## GuRu (Feb 10, 2013)

Very informative thread ! Thanks for photos and information/explanations.


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## Clark (Feb 10, 2013)

Very nice!
Not so far from our home, we had a nice isolated batch of acuale.
The park put up Do Not Disturb Native Ladyslipper Orchid signs.
The next blooming, off the cuff, I would say 75% of the plants were being dug up.
Kinda sucks when one is trying to do progression photos.

One might want to keep exact locations to PM's...


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## The Orchid Boy (Feb 11, 2013)

Thanks for sharing these pictures!



Clark said:


> Very nice!
> Not so far from our home, we had a nice isolated batch of acuale.
> The park put up Do Not Disturb Native Ladyslipper Orchid signs.
> The next blooming, off the cuff, I would say 75% of the plants were being dug up.
> ...



Some people are so .... I don't know how to describe them. Leave these rare plants alone! If anyone knows where I can see native Nebraska orchids in their wild habitat I'd love to know who to contact or where to find them. There is almost no untouched, natural, virgin land in this state... Farmers and ranchers basically destroyed the natural areas. And they continue to destroy them..... They're all money hungry, its amazing to the lengths they go to to squeeze every penny out of the land and make every excuse they can.


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## cnycharles (Feb 12, 2013)

sadly signs that say keep away from protected things usually draw people with shovels and the like or lawnmowers; maybe better off to put up a sign that says beware toxic radioactive poison ivy or something like that, or just put up a big fence (I used to tell a retired park ranger up north if he was going to keep replacing yellow ladyslippers that were dug up, with new seedlings, he should at least put some land mines or quicksand around them, and this was way out in a wilderness area that the shovelers were going after)


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## tocarmar (Feb 16, 2013)

Very nice pics!! I have a few rescued ones that are doing real good. Hopefully they will come up this spring. I will be getting a couple of other species this spring for breeding, to add to the few I have now!!


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