Even if you know nothing about ephemerals, you almost certainly know the lady slipper. These plants are so unusual in their appearance that their name needs no explanation: they look just like ballerina shoes. The lady slipper looks so weird because it is an orchid. An orchid, in New England! (We actually have a handful of orchids here, but they are usually smaller and require you to go to special places to find them). We have several lady slippers in Massachusetts. You can tell the pink lady slipper (Cypripedium acaule) because it is — you guessed it — pink! This lady slipper requires very acidic soil and loves pine forests, but it also grows in deciduous woods.

These plants are so fun and sweet and unbelievably special, it is hard not to pick them and take them home to show to everyone you know. Please don’t. Lady slippers can take many years to grow and develop from seed to mature plants. They are symbiotic plants, and rely on a fungus found in the soil to break open the lady slipper seed and then feed the seed and seedling its food and nutrients. Once the lady slipper plant is mature and producing its own nutrients, the fungus will extract nutrients from the orchid roots itself. So, if you pick the lady slipper, you are killing a whole community!