Lady's Slipper

This beautiful member of the orchid family has a characteristic lower lip that forms an inflated sac, which suggests the shape of a moccasin, thereby giving the plant one of its common names, Moccasin Flower. Lady's Slipper is a pungent, bittersweet herb with an unpleasant odor and thrives in moist, humus-rich soil in an open or shady situation, growing to about two feet in height. Like many other native orchids, Lady's Slipper is becoming increasingly rare, and its history as an ornamental is as rich as its distinguished medicinal past. The plant was widely employed by Native Americans as a tranquilizer, and the early settlers found that it was a good substitute for the garden heliotrope (Valerian) that women and children had used as a sedative in Europe. They began to refer to the plant as American Valerian, and by the mid-nineteenth century, doctors were prescribing the root for hysteria, delirium, irritability, epilepsy and neuralgia. Although called American Valerian, because of its calming properties, Lady's Slipper is less potent than Valerian, and the roots of several varieties of this plant (Cypridedium pubescens/ larger and Cypridedium parviflorum/ smaller) were included in the United States Pharmacopoeia from 1863 to 1916. Lady's Slipper is a complex resinoid substance and includes cypridenin.