Calypso is a genus of orchids containing one species, Calypso bulbosa, known as the calypso orchid, fairy slipper or Venus’s slipper. It is a perennial member of the orchid family found in undisturbed northern and montane forests. It has a small pink, purple, pinkish-purple, or red flower accented with a white lip, darker purple spottings, and yellow beard. The genus Calypso takes its name from the Greek signifying concealment, as they tend to favor sheltered areas on conifer forest floors. The specific epithet, bulbosa, refers to the bulb-like corms.[2]
Calypso bulbosa is a deciduous, perennial, herbaceous tuberous geophyte with a round, egg-shaped tuber as a perennial organ. It is encased in dead leaf sheaths and has elongated roots. Calypso orchids are typically 8 to 20 cm in height.[2] At the bottom there is only a single leaf, which is stalked up to about 7 cm long. The leaves are whole eliptical lanceolate to egg-shaped blade is up to 6 cm long and up to 5 cm wide.
Plant blooms with a purple-pink hermaphroditic, zygomorphic and threefold flower. The protruding petals and sepals are pink to purple in color, about 10 to 12 millimeters long and about 2 to 4 millimeters wide. The lip (labellum) is white to pink with pink or yellow spots. It has a wide, shoe-shaped cavity in the back and is about 15 to 25 millimeters long. A spur is absent. They do not bloom until May and June usually after snow melt. Each bulb live no more than five years.[2]
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