Thursday, July 09, 2015

Minnesota State Flower

Fast Facts

  • Adopted as the State flower in 1902
  • Botanical Name: Cypripedium reginae
  • Also known as: the Queen’s lady slipper and the showy lady’s slipper
  • The lady’s slipper is uncommon in Minnesota
  • Fun Fact: Some people can get a rash from touching the leaves of this pretty orchid
  • In its first year, the orchid grows only about as tall as a pencil point!
  • Each year the lady’s slipper may produce a half-million seeds, which are as fine as flour dust.
  • With the pink and white lady slipper’s longer than average life span – some species may grow be 100 years old!

  • Thank you Susan for showing me where to find this beauty!!




Found living in open fens, bogs, swamps, and damp woods where there is an abundance of natural light, the feminine-looking pink and white lady’s slipper grows slowly, taking up to 16 years to produce the first flowers! Blooming in late June or early July, the plants may live, on average, about 50 years and can grow to be over four feet tall.
A century ago, the ostentatious pink and white lady’s slipper was a favorite adornment in rural church altars during the summer. 

Since 1925, this rare wildflower has been protected by Minnesota state law; it is illegal to pick the flowers or to uproot or unearth them.


19 comments:

  1. A rare flower is the state flower? Now that's rare, isn't it?

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  2. Definitely a showy orchid; glad it's protected now!

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  3. Very delicate looking to have such a long life. The bluebonnet in Texas is also protected, no picking or mowing, but people dont mind laying in them and killing them for a picture.

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  4. Your state flower is uncommon in MN? I guess it's pretty special when you venture upon one. Beauties!

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  5. My favorite flower. I make trips to the North Country to see them. I had about 20 growing in an artificial bog the design of which I found in our Conservation Volunteer magazine back in the 60's. the original on was purchased (legally) at a nursery in Grand Rapids. Unfortunately I had to leave them behind when we moved ten years ago....:(

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  6. Lovely! We have pink lady slippers here, fairly uncommon.

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  7. And I can see how it really could look like a fancy slipper.

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  8. A beautiful flower and interesting information. We have a desert plant called a lady slipper and sometimes called a pencil plant. I'll have to post a photo of one soon.

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  9. It is very pretty. I'm not sure that I could wait 16 years for a flower to show up. It would be fun to plant one on the day a child is born. That way it would be a very sweet sixteenth birthday.

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  10. it's neat. i laughed that it is rare there. :)

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  11. Worth finding. Quite a beauty!

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  12. It certainly is pretty!

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  13. Nice! I've never seen a pink one in the wild. It's hard to imagine enough for a bouquet for the church altar!

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  14. I'll take a dozen please. Tom The Backroads Traveller

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  15. Very delicate and lovely, Kate.

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  16. I used to see these on our country roads but they have become quite rare here too. They are such lovely flowers!

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  17. What a beauty! It's such a treat to find rare flowers like this.

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  18. Beautiful flowers, and how interesting that it is the Minn. State flower when so rare there. I have never seen pink ones, as the white lady's slippers are more common to my area. They are a Wis. threatened species, so therefore protected as they are in your state.

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