April
18
Pink Lady’s-slipper
(Cypripedium
acaule)
Sometimes
called Pink Moccasin Flower, this orchid has very small
hairs on the two basal leaves and on the top two petals.
The third petal is an inflated pouch.
I prefer to paint a plant indoors where there is no wind or
rain to disrupt the plant. Most importantly, the shadows
don’t move under my stationary lighting and the flowers
hold still rather than following the sun’s path across the
sky. You can see that there are two plants in the painting.
I brought them indoors in a pot and, after painting them,
put the pot outdoors. Although a pot is not a good place
for a Pink Lady’s-slipper (because the roots spread out,
shallow and wide), they both
bloomed the
next year. They continued to bloom but by the fifth year
only one very small orchid remained. So, I put them back
out in my woods where they have now disappeared.
It’s just not good to dig Pink Lady’s-slippers. Damaged
roots don’t heal. And, they are picky about soil
requirements: acidity and perhaps a certain pine fungus. If
these conditions change, the plants may go dormant for
years until required conditions return. So, I
may
see
my Pink Lady’s-slippers again.
A dry seed capsule of a previous pink lady’s slipper is
illustrated in the background in one of my other paintings,
that of the Jack in the Pulpit and Pink Lady’s-slipper seed
pod (May 13).
(Click on the picture
for a larger image)
(Click here for the next
painting)