Calypso bulbosa(L.) Oakes

Fairy-slipper

WFO wfo-0000783846 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–h

Calypso bulbosa, photographed by Ellyne Geurts
fig. a Ellyne Geurts, CC0 1.0 / 2021-08-10 / obs. 165758601
Calypso bulbosa, photographed by Ellyne Geurts
fig. b Ellyne Geurts, CC0 1.0 / obs. 178535389
Calypso bulbosa, photographed by Megan Blackmore
fig. c Megan Blackmore, CC0 1.0 / obs. 188929800
Calypso bulbosa, photographed by Erin Springinotic
fig. d Erin Springinotic, CC0 1.0 / obs. 156109228
Calypso bulbosa, photographed by Randal
fig. e Randal, CC0 1.0 / obs. 124884732
Calypso bulbosa, photographed by Erin Springinotic
fig. f Erin Springinotic, CC0 1.0 / obs. 156560682
Calypso bulbosa, photographed by Erin Springinotic
fig. g Erin Springinotic, CC0 1.0 / obs. 157022237
Calypso bulbosa, photographed by Erin Springinotic
fig. h Erin Springinotic, CC0 1.0 / obs. 102208176

Every figure is a research-grade observation under CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA, rehosted with the photographer’s name, the licence and the observation it came from. Photographs under a NonCommercial licence are excluded from this site and are never stored, which costs us a great many pictures and is not negotiable.

Confused withby our own model

These are not lookalikes we guessed at. Each one is a species our identification model genuinely mistook for this plant, and how many times. The error rate is published.

Flowering n = 6,599 observations

Peak flowering in May, from 6,599 community-annotated observations worldwide. This is a global aggregate, not a forecast for your garden: the same species flowers on different dates in different hemispheres, and citizen-science records cluster near cities, at weekends, and in spring. Where a species has fewer than 30 annotated records we do not draw this chart at all.

Also published as 32 synonyms

A synonym is not an error. It is a record of botanists disagreeing, in print, about where this plant belongs. Each of these was somebody’s considered answer.

  • Calypso americana R.Br.
  • Calypso borealis Salisb.
  • Calypso bulbosa f. albiflora P.M.Br.
  • Calypso bulbosa f. americana (R.Br.) P.M.Br.
  • Calypso bulbosa f. biflora P.M.Br.
  • Calypso bulbosa f. bulbosa
  • Calypso bulbosa f. candida Hyl.
  • Calypso bulbosa f. nivea P.M.Br. & R.A.Coleman
  • Calypso bulbosa f. nivea P.M.Br.
  • Calypso bulbosa f. occidentalis Holz.
  • Calypso bulbosa f. rosea P.M.Br.
  • Calypso bulbosa subsp. americana (R.Br.) A.Haines
  • Calypso bulbosa subsp. occidentalis (Holz.) Calder & Roy L.Taylor
  • Calypso bulbosa var. occidentalis (Holz.) B.Boivin
  • Calypso occidentalis (Holz.) A.Heller
  • Calypso speciosa Schltr.
  • Calypsodium boreale Link
  • Cymbidium boreale Sw.
  • Cypripedium bulbosum L.
  • Cytherea borealis Salisb.
  • Cytherea bulbosa (L.) House
  • Cytherea bulbosa var. occidentalis (Holz.) Cockerell
  • Cytherea occidentalis (Holz.) A.Heller
  • Cytherea speciosa (Schltr.) Makino

and 8 more.

Sourcesevery claim on this page

  1. World Flora Online Plant List. accepted name, authority, classification. CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-12.
  2. iNaturalist. photographs and flowering annotations, CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA only. per photograph. Retrieved 2026-06-27.

We publish what we can source and we say so when we cannot. This page has no care advice, no toxicity claim and no native range, because we do not yet have those from a source we can cite.