I was starting to get a bit disappointed.  I had been checking the last couple of weeks, but I had not yet seen any lady slippers around.

I like lady slippers.  I think they are quite attractive flowers, although I really don’t see any resemblance to a slipper.  I’m not sure I’d want to stick my foot in a puffy little thing like that, but then again, I’m no lady.  That I will readily admit.  But I do like finding certain wildflowers around as they come into bloom each year.  I have regular spots I like to check.  And this year, I wasn’t finding them.

Maybe I was just looking too hard, because on a recent evening walk I came across quite a few of them.  Most were the pink variety.  In fact, they were probably all pink lady slippers even though most were so dark they were almost purple.  Except for one that was close to white.  I had seen white ones before, but they are fairly rare.  Then again, lady slippers themselves are rare.  Endangered even.

But it got me wondering how many different colours there are of these wonderful little wild orchids.  So I checked.  There are actually four types of lady slipper that can be found around the province.  The ones I usually come across are actually all the same type.  These are the pink lady slipper.  There are also yellow lady slippers, ramshead lady slipper and showy lady slipper.

What surprised me was one article I found was saying they are uncommon, but trillium are far more rare.  The surprise part was I’ve been seeing trilliums everywhere over the past couple weeks, but wasn’t spotting many lady slippers.  In fact in one tiny spot I came across almost a dozen trilliums.  Guess someone forgot to tell them they are rare.

But the pink lady slipper comes in several different shades, from purple to white.  It’s the one most of us are probably familiar with.

The yellow lady slipper is a bit smaller flower and a bit more cupped.  They say it grows around swampy areas where there is a lot of limestone.

The ramshead lady slipper seems to be the smallest of the lot.  At least the flower part.

And the showy lady slipper is, well… showy.  It’s the biggest of the bunch.  In fact, it’s the largest orchid native to North America apparently, and tends to have flowers that area lighter colour on top and darker pink on the bottom.

As far as I know, I have never seen three of the four types.  I’ve only seen the pink variety.  I’ve read about the other three and seen pictures, but have never managed to come across them.

Of course, since they are rare plants, you are not supposed to pick them.  The showy variety can even produce a rash similar to poison ivy, which makes not picking them an even better idea.

But at least I’ve found a few this year.

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