Native Orchid dormancy , pink lady slippers and fringed orchids
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I have the green fringe orchid which comes and goes from one place to,another in my wetlands , after 2or 3 years they disappear and appear usually somewhere else .
My pink lady slippers after having many for years have all disappeared for the past several years , the pine land area is the same undisturbed for the 39 years I've been here , and cannot figure out the reason .
Perhaps the soil somehow changed to be unfriendly to your lady slippers? I wish I could have them, but it is the MN state flower and you can be arrested if caught removing one from the wild! I love lady slippers. My Mom had a pink one, but didn't take it with her when they built a new house. Needless to say I was upset about that. She had it for years.
Here are 3 things that may be the cause of the reduction / disappearance of the flower.
#1 Pink Lady Slippers cannot grow without the Rhizoctonia fungus.
#2 They are also dependent on bumble bees to help them with pollination. AND #3 According the "THE MEDICINAL PLANT FACT SHEET" (the link to which has been posted below) : "It has been noted that the rhizomes of some terrestrial orchids, including Cypripedium, may not produce above-ground organs (leaves, stems and flowers) every year and can enter an underground mycotrophic state known as “dormancy” (Primack & Stacy 1998, Shefferson et al. 2005). A variety of causes have been proposed in the induction of dormancy—stress of flowering, fruiting, damage from herbivores or mechanical damage to the plant—but there are contradictions in studies (Shefferson & Simms 2007). " It has been noted that the rhizomes of some terrestrial orchids, including Cypripedium, may not produce above-ground organs (leaves, stems and flowers) every year and can enter an underground mycotrophic state known as “dormancy” (Primack & Stacy 1998, Shefferson et al. 2005). A variety of causes have been proposed in the induction of dormancy—stress of flowering, fruiting, damage from herbivores or mechanical damage to the plant—but there are contradictions in studies (Shefferson & Simms 2007). y
Perhaps this link will supply you also with enough information to help you tease out the reason for the behaviour of the green fringe orchid.
http://www.pollinator.org/Resources/Cypripedium.draft.pdf
A few. Years a go i was racking up pine straw in a near by woods and spotted some orchid s I tried to dig one up carry it home and planted it in a shady area put straw around it , did good bet never came back. I live in N C
Individual orchids may live for many years, quite often having germinated and started life in conditions far different from those we later find them in. A dappled forest glade, dotted with lady's slippers, may have been burned, blackened earth 30 years before. At some point in forest succession the orchids moved in to colonize the site, or survived the fire below ground. They flourish now, but in another decade or two, the forest canopy will shut out the life-giving sun, and the orchids will disappear; only to return again after fire sweeps the land clean again. In the short span of human existence we tend to be witness to only one small part of nature's plan. We see one still frame of the full-length movie that is life on earth.
Not in Minnesota, since it is the state flower it is not legal to have them as they are not plentiful in the wild.
Wow, I alwaysthought orchids were a tropical plant. I have nothing to offer but good luck and thanks for the info. I wonder if they could survive in zone 5.
They do survive in zone 5 and to be more specific on Prince Edward Island (PEI) (Canada) where the pink lady slippers is our provincial flower. I am attaching a link which has interesting info about 3 types of lady slippers which can all be found on PEI and the conditions needed for each to grow.
http://macphailwoods.org/nature-guides/wildflowers/lady-slippers/