Handbook of Nature-Study · Lesson CXXVI · Topic 19: Spring wildflowers of the woods
126. The yellow lady's slipper
Goal: Your child observes a lady's slipper orchid where it grows and explains how the slipper-shaped petal traps a bee and makes it carry pollen.
You'll need
- Nature notebook, pencil and colored pencils
- A hand lens (magnifying glass)
- A camera or phone for a photo (optional)
What's in the book
A Teacher's Story about the lady's slippers (moccasin flowers), with a photograph of the showy lady's slipper, and the lesson: Leading thought, Method and nine questions.
The lesson, step by step
When and where
Lady's slippers bloom in late spring, around May and June, in woods and bogs. They are orchids and often scarce.
Important: never pick or dig a lady's slipper. Many are protected by law, and they almost never survive being moved. Comstock's method asks for a bouquet; today we go to the plant instead, or use photographs and the book's pictures.
The leading thought
The moccasin flower belongs to that family of flowers known as orchids which especially depend upon insects for bringing and carrying pollen, and which have developed many strange devices to secure insect aid in pollenation.
Leaves and sepals
Where does the yellow lady's slipper grow? Look carefully at its leaves and describe them. How do they join the stem? Are they opposite or alternate?
The slipper
Describe the three petals and the difference and likeness in their form and color. What is the shape of the lower petal?
If an insect should enter the mouth of the well in the lower petal could it easily come out by the same opening? Why not? Where do you think it would emerge?
Think it through
How is the insect attracted? How is it trapped and made to do the work?
Explain how a bee visiting these flowers, one after another, must carry the pollen from one to another and deposit it on the waiting stigmas.
A bee pushes into the big opening, can't climb back out, and must squeeze out a small back door, past the stigma and then the anthers.
Other kinds
How many species of lady's slippers do you know? Do you know the pink, or stemless species?
Nature notebook
Draw the slipper from the side and show with arrows the bee's way in and its way out. Write the date and where you saw it (or which photo you used).
Tip
If you know of a lady's slipper patch, keep the location private so the plants are not dug up.
Answers to the book's problems
The bee enters by the large opening in the sac, cannot get out the same way because the edges curve in, and leaves by one of the small openings near the stem, brushing the stigma first and then picking up pollen from an anther.
Worked out for this site from the scan. If a number in your copy differs, trust the book.