Return of the Mountain Lady’s Slipper

According to three of my wildflower books (I have four that I consult regularly) the mountain lady’s slipper is rare throughout its entire range.  As most orchids, the mountain lady’s slipper is finicky about where it will grow.  Slippers prefer moist but well drained soils.  I always find them deep in forests where they are mostly in shade all day.  I have only seen them in two locations near where I live.  I have found them occasionally inside a particular canyon in the Big Belt Mountains and I found them on my cabin property.

Until the pine beetle and spruce budworm infestations swept through the forest around my cabin, five or six of the orchid plants appeared every summer in a densely wooded bowl near the creek at my cabin.  The dying trees and the thinning required to save the rest, changed the nature of the moisture and the light where the orchids flourished.

My orchids vanished.

Though I have an abundance of fairy slippers, I have not seen a lady’s slipper for something near six years.  Yesterday, while taking a break from working on the cabin, I took a short walk from the cabin to clear my mind and, quite by chance, found two mountain lady’s slipper plants in a new location only a stone’s throw from my cabin.

I am posting a photograph taken with my twice-as-smarter-than-me-phone.

Welcome back, slippers!

 --Mitchell Hegman