Fairy slipper is a small orchid that rewards anyone who watches the forest floor in spring. A single reddish stalk, only a few inches tall, holds one flower. Narrow pink-purple petals and sepals fan out above like a crown, and below hangs a pouched lip, pale with reddish purple spots, shaped like a tiny slipper.
The plant has just one leaf. It grows from a small corm in fall, lasts through the winter and withers by summer. The flowers offer no nectar at all. They lure bumblebees with their looks alone, and the bees soon learn the trick and stop visiting, so pollination is hit or miss. The orchid cannot pollinate itself, and its seeds need particular soil fungi to sprout, which is also why a dug-up plant almost never survives being moved.
Fairy slipper is easy to harm. Its roots break easily, and picking the flower usually kills the whole plant. Trampling and picking have caused declines in some places. Look for it in cool, deep shade in moist conifer forest with plenty of rotting wood, especially mature and old-growth Douglas-fir stands, from low to middle elevations. Enjoy it from the trail and watch where you step.
How to identify it
One broad, oval leaf lies near the ground below a reddish stalk about 2 to 8 inches tall. The single flower has narrow, upright pink to magenta petals and sepals over a large, pouched lip that is pale with reddish purple spots and streaks.
Habitat
Cool, deep shade in moist forests with rich, humus-filled soil and decaying wood, from near sea level to middle elevations. It is most common in mature and old-growth Douglas-fir forest.
Sightings in the forest
388 research-grade sightings in Mt. Hood National Forest on iNaturalist, most recently on June 20, 2026. See them on iNaturalist →