# Two Rare Cyps



## KyushuCalanthe (Jul 21, 2019)

Here’s a couple videos from a native of Chicago who is a traveling botanist supreme. Yes, he swears a lot and has a general bad attitude towards “modern life”, but man they guy has gone places and he knows his stuff.

That said, here he is several years ago in the mountains around Oaxaca where he finds the extremely rare endemic slipper orchid Cypripedium molle, among other things. He’s definitely out of his element here, struggling to identify stuff, but what a great find:



And back up in California finding another rare endemic slipper orchid, Cypripedium californicum and Epipactis gigantea in a serpentine seepage bog:



I mentioned these videos only because he shows slipper orchids, but go ahead and watch some of his other videos - you’ll be impressed with his knowledge.


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## GuRu (Jul 21, 2019)

To see this rare orchids in situ is so ''fucking'' nice. Thanks for sharing


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## KyushuCalanthe (Jul 23, 2019)

GuRu said:


> To see this rare orchids in situ is so ''fucking'' nice. Thanks for sharing


You are welcome. You will not find any other videos of C. molle, C. irapeanum or C. dickinsonianum on the "English side" of the web that I know of. Pretty rare stuff, though it is said that C. molle is locally abundant in the mountains around Oaxaca - that is nice to know. Let's hope it stays that way.


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## xiphius (Jul 23, 2019)

Interesting! Thanks for sharing!


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## naoki (Jul 24, 2019)

Very cool to see their habitat! Thank you for the share.


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## dodidoki (Aug 11, 2019)

It is unbelivable video about dickinsonianum.As i know it is in relation with irapeanum.I just wonder that cyps are depending of lot of water.I saw that there are not any green plants , agawes are is just suffering because of lack of water.Any explanation?


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## KyushuCalanthe (Aug 11, 2019)

dodidoki said:


> It is unbelivable video about dickinsonianum.As i know it is in relation with irapeanum.I just wonder that cyps are depending of lot of water.I saw that there are not any green plants , agawes are is just suffering because of lack of water.Any explanation?


To my knowledge the plant in the video is C. molle, a close cousin of both C. irapeanum and C. dickinsonianum. C. molle is restricted to Oaxaca and Puebla States where it is considered locally abundant. The climate in this area is radically different than for most Cyps with no true winter cold, and a moist and humid summer that is "on the dry side". The presence of Tillandsia in the trees indicates moisture in the region. According to the IUCN Redlist page on this species, "_Cypripedium molle _occurs in a variety of habitats from dryish pine-oak forest, partially cleared tropical deciduous forest, seasonally dry _Pinus-Quercus-_ and _Quercus_ forest (the latter often with interspersed individuals of _Juniperus flaccida_, _Dasylirion_, _Rhus_ and _Brahea_ _nitida_, among others) and various types of xerophilous scrub. The species grows on wet limestone-based, red clayey soils substrates in shady to mid-shade substrates, although some subpopulations (e.g. those around Ixtlán de Juárez, Oaxaca) seem to thrive in soils derived from igneous rock. The species flowers in July to August."

For more about this plant I recommend seeing its full IUNC page: https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/43316807/43327689


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