''Calypso'' is a genus of orchids containing one species, ''Calypso bulbosa'', known as the calypso orchid, fairy slipper or Venus's slipper. It is a perennial member of the orchid family found in undisturbed northern and montane forests. It has a small pink, purple, pinkish-purple, or red flower accented with a white lip, darker purple spottings, and yellow beard. The genus ''Calypso'' takes its name from the Greek signifying concealment, as they tend to favor sheltered areas on conifer forest floors. The specific epithet, ''bulbosa'', refers to the

bulb In botany, a bulb is structurally a short stem with fleshy leaves or leaf basesBell, A.D. 1997. ''Plant form: an illustrated guide to flowering plant morphology''. Oxford University Press, Oxford, U.K. that function as food storage organs duri ...

-like corms.

Description

''Calypso bulbosa'' is a deciduous, perennial, herbaceous tuberous geophyte with a round, egg-shaped tuber as a perennial organ. It is encased in dead leaf sheaths and has elongated roots. ''Calypso'' orchids are typically 8 to 20 cm in height. At the bottom there is only a single leaf, which is stalked up to about 7 cm long. The leaves are whole eliptical lanceolate to egg-shaped blade is up to 6 cm long and up to 5 cm wide. Plant blooms with a purple-pink hermaphroditic, zygomorphic and threefold flower. The protruding petals and sepals are pink to purple in color, about 10 to 12 millimeters long and about 2 to 4 millimeters wide. The lip (labellum) is white to pink with pink or yellow spots. It has a wide, shoe-shaped cavity in the back and is about 15 to 25 millimeters long. A spur is absent. They do not bloom until May and June usually after snow melt. Each bulb lives no more than five years. File:Calypso bulbosa - Flickr 005.jpg, Flowers File:Calypso bulbosa 5499.JPG, Leaf Top File:Calypso bulbosa 5500.JPG, Leaf underside File:Calypso bulbosa var. occidentalis (3).jpg, White form of ''Calypso bulbosa'' var. ''occidentalis''

Taxonomy and systematics

The chromosomes count is 2n = 28. Since the orchid seed does not provide any nutrient tissue, germination only takes place when infected by a Mycorrhizal root fungus.

Taxonomy

The generic name ''Calypso'' , which is still valid today. was described in 1806 by the English gardener Richard Anthony Salisbury (1761-1829) in the work "Paradisus Londinensis", which Salisbury with the then director of the Royal Botanic Gardens in London,

William Jackson Hooker Sir William Jackson Hooker (6 July 178512 August 1865) was an English botanist and botanical illustrator, who became the first director of Kew when in 1841 it was recommended to be placed under state ownership as a botanic garden. At Kew he ...

(1785-1865), published. Carl von Linné originally assigned the ''Calypso bulbosa'' to the genus ''Cypripedium'' in 1753. But ''Calypso'' and ''Cypripedium'' now belong to two different subfamilies. The following generic names have been published as synonyms: * ''Cytherea'' (1812) * ''Orchidium'' (1814) * ''Calypsodium'' (1829) * ''Norna'' (1833) The valid botanical species name of the Calypso orchid is: ''Calypso bulbosa'' . The Basionym ''Cypripedium bulbosum'' was described by Linné in "Species Plantarum". The species names listed here are used as synonyms: File:The paradisus londinensis (8318676110).jpg, ''C. bulbosa'' in "Paradisus Londinensis" File:Flora Europaea inchoata (Pl. 7) (6032619343).jpg, Illustration of ''Calypso bulbosa'' as ''Cypripedium bulbosum'' by Johann Jacob Roemer in Flora Europaea inchoata (1797) File:Calypso bulbosa (as Calypso borealis) - Curtis' 54 (N.S. 1) pl. 2763 (1827).jpg, Illustration of ''Calypso bulbos''a (as syn. Calypso borealis) in " Curtis's Botanical Magazine" vol.54 (N.S. 1) pl. 2763 (1827) File:Abbildungen der in Deutschland und den angrenzenden gebieten vorkommenden grundformen der orchideenarten (Pl 60 Calypso bulbos) (6022132370).jpg, ''Calypso bulbosa'' Rchb. F. by Kränzlin, Friedrich; Müller, Walter in Abbildungen der in Deutschland und den angrenzenden gebieten vorkommenden grundformen der orchideenarten (1904) ;Varieties Four natural varieties and one nothovariety (variety of hybrid origin but established in the wild) are recognized:

Distribution and ecology

This species' range is circumpolar, and includes California, the Rocky Mountain states and most of the most northerly states of the United States; most of Canada; Scandinavia much of European and Asiatic Russia;

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

, Mongolia, Korea and

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

—see external links for map.Kew World Checklist of Selected Plant Families
/ref> It is found in subarctic swamps and marshes as well as shady places subarctic coniferous forests. Although the calypso orchid's distribution is wide, it is very susceptible to disturbance, and is therefore classified as threatened or endangered in several U. S. states and in Sweden and Finland. It does not transplant well owing to its

mycorrhiza A mycorrhiza (from Greek μύκης ', "fungus", and ῥίζα ', "root"; pl. mycorrhizae, mycorrhiza or mycorrhizas) is a symbiotic association between a fungus and a plant. The term mycorrhiza refers to the role of the fungus in the plant ...

l dependence on specific soil fungi. The corms have been used as a food source by

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...

n native peoples. The Nlaka'pamux of British Columbia used it as a treatment for mild epilepsy. At least near Banff, Alberta, the calypso orchid is pollinated by bumble bees ('' Bombus (Pyrobombus)'' and ''B. Psithyrus''). It relies on "pollination by deception", as it attracts insects to

anther The stamen (plural ''stamina'' or ''stamens'') is the pollen-producing reproductive organ of a flower. Collectively the stamens form the androecium., p. 10 Morphology and terminology A stamen typically consists of a stalk called the filam ...

-like yellow hairs at the entrance to the pouch and forked nectary-like structures at the end of the pouch but produces no

nectar Nectar is a sugar-rich liquid produced by plants in glands called nectaries or nectarines, either within the flowers with which it attracts pollinating animals, or by extrafloral nectaries, which provide a nutrient source to animal mutualists ...

that would nourish them. Insects quickly learn not to revisit it. Avoiding such recognition may account for some of the small variation in the flower's appearance. Summarized by Coleman and by Boyden

References

External links

* *
Map of distribution

Jepson Manual treatment of the species

{{Taxonbar, from1=Q1141063, from2=Q13398625 Orchids of the United States Plants described in 1753 Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus Orchids of Canada Orchids of Europe Orchids of Asia Orchids of Russia Orchids of China Calypsoinae Plants used in Native American cuisine Plants used in traditional Native American medicine Flora without expected TNC conservation status