Grand Floral Parade - Wildflowers along the Appalachian Trail

Latin name: Cypripedium acaule
Flower: The upper two petals are long and slender, and range from yellow-green to purple-brown. It's the other petal, though, that makes this plant so distinctive. It is one to three inches long, bulbous in shape, richly pink, marked with darker pink to red veins, and folds to a deep cleft in the middle.
Average bloom season: Late April to July
Leaves and stems: Two broad four- to eight-inch leaves grow from the base of a stem that rises up from six to twenty-four inches in height.
Range in AT states: Georgia to Maine
Most likely AT locations: Between Davenport Gap and Hot Springs, North Carolina; Bluff Mountain in central Virginia; close to the Pine Cobble Trail near the Massachusetts/Vermont border; numerous mountains in Connecticut; in the Carter-Moriah Range of New Hampshire; north of East B Hill Road in Maine.

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