Cypripedium guttatum Swartz Kongl. Vetensk. Acad. Nya Handl. 21: 251. 1800.

紫点杓兰 zi dian shao lan

Cypripedium bouffordianum Yong H. Zhang & H. Sun; C. orientale Sprengel.

Plants 15-25 cm tall, with a slender, creeping rhizome. Stem erect, pubescent and glandular hairy, with several sheaths at base and 2 or rarely 3 leaves above. Leaves subopposite or occasionally alternate, at or above middle of plant; blade often turning black or blackish when dried, elliptic, ovate, or ovate-lanceolate, 5-12 × 2.5-4.5(-6) cm, abaxial veins sparsely pubescent or subglabrous, apex acute or acuminate. Inflorescence terminal, with 1 flower; peduncle densely pubescent and glandular hairy; floral bracts foliaceous, ovate-lanceolate, usually 1.5-3 cm, minutely ciliate, apex acute or acuminate; pedicel and ovary 1-1.5 cm, with glandular hairs. Flower white with purplish red or brownish red markings. Dorsal sepal ovate-elliptic or broadly ovate-elliptic, 1.5-2.2 × 1.2-1.6 cm, often sparsely puberulent toward abaxial base, apex acute or shortly acuminate; synsepal narrowly elliptic, 1.2-1.8 × 0.5-0.6 cm, apex shallowly 2-lobed. Petals often subspatulate or pandurate, 1.3-1.8 × 0.5-0.7 cm, hairy toward adaxial base, apex often slightly dilated and rounded; lip deeply pouched, pitcher-shaped, ca. 1.5 × 1.5 cm, lacking an incurved apical margin, with a broad mouth, inner bottom hairy. Staminode ovate-elliptic, 4-5 × 2.5-3 mm, abaxially broadly keeled, adaxially minutely longitudinally ridged, apex emarginate or subtruncate. Capsule pendulous, nearly narrowly ellipsoid, ca. 2.5 cm × 8-10 mm, puberulent. Fl. May-Jul, fr. Aug-Sep. 2n = 20, 30.

Forests, thickets, grasslands; 500-4000 m. Hebei, Heilongjiang, Jilin, Liaoning, Nei Mongol, Ningxia, Shaanxi, Shandong, Shanxi, Sichuan, Xizang, NW Yunnan [Bhutan, Korea, Russia (Far East, Siberia); Europe, North America].

Cypripedium bouffordianum is evidently an albino form of C. guttatum. It is very similar in habit and flower structure to C. guttatum but lacks any purple-red or brown-red markings on the flower.Cypripedium bouffordianum is evidently an albino form of C. guttatum. It is very similar in habit and flower structure to C. guttatum but lacks any purple-red or brown-red markings on the flower.