Calypso bulbosa

Classification System: APG IV

Superregnum: Eukaryota
Regnum: Plantae
Cladus: Angiosperms
Cladus: Monocots
Ordo: Asparagales

Familia: Orchidaceae
Subfamilia: Epidendroideae
Tribus: Calypsoeae
Genus: Calypso
Species: Calypso bulbosa
Varietates: (4)
C. b. var. americana – C. b. var. bulbosa – C. b. var. occidentalis – C. b. var. speciosa

Nothovarietas: (1)
C. b. nothovar. kostiukiae
Name

Calypso bulbosa (L.) Oakes, Cat. Vermont Pl.: 28 (1842)
Synonymy

Basionym
Cypripedium bulbosum L., Sp. Pl.: 951 (1753)
Homotypic
Cymbidium boreale Sw., Nova Acta Regiae Soc. Sci. Upsal. 6: 76 (1799), nom. superfl.
Limodorum boreale (Sw.) Sw., Neues J. Bot. 1: 85 (1805), nom. superfl.
Calypso borealis (Sw.) Salisb., Parad. Lond.: t. 89 (1806), nom. superfl.
Cytherea borealis (Sw.) Salisb., Trans. Hort. Soc. London 1: 301 (1812), nom. superfl.
Orchidium arcticum Sw., Summa Veg. Scand.: 32 (1814), nom. inval.
Orchidium boreale (Sw.) Sw. in J.W.Palmstruch, Sv. Bot. 8: t. 518 (1816), nom. superfl.
Calypsodium boreale (Sw.) Link, Handbuch 1: 252 (1829), nom. superfl.
Norna borealis (Sw.) Wahlenb., Fl. Suec., ed. 2: 561 (1833), nom. superfl.
Cytherea bulbosa (L.) House, Bull. Torrey Bot. Club 32: 382 (1905)
Heterotypic
Calypso bulbosa f. candida Hyl., Uppsala Univ. Årsskr. 7: 119 (1945)

Distribution
Native distribution areas:

Europe
Northern Europe
Finland, Sweden.
Eastern Europe
Baltic States, Central European Russia, East European Russia, North European Russia, Northwest European Russia.
Asia-Temperate
Siberia
Buryatiya, Irkutsk Krasnoyarsk, West Siberia.
Russian Far East
Amur, Khabarovsk, Primorye, Sakhalin.
China
China South-Central, Inner Mongolia, Manchuria, China North-Central, Tibet.
Mongolia
Mongolia.
Eastern Asia
Japan, Korea.
Northern America
Subarctic America
Aleutian Islands, Alaska, Nunavut, Northwest Territories, Yukon.
Western Canada
Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, Saskatchewan.
Eastern Canada
Labrador, New Brunswick, Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Prince Edward Isle, Québec.
Northwestern U.S.A.
Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington, Wyoming.
North-Central U.S.A.
Minnesota, South Dakota, Wisconsin.
Northeastern U.S.A.
Maine, Michigan, New Hampshire, New York, Vermont.
Southwestern U.S.A.
Arizona, California, Utah.
South-Central U.S.A.
New Mexico.

References: Brummitt, R.K. 2001. TDWG – World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions, 2nd Edition
References
Primary references

Oakes, W. 1842,Catalogue of Vermont Plants 1: 200.
Pridgeon, A.M., Cribb, P.J., Chase, M.W. & Rasmussen, F.N. (eds.) 2006. Genera Orchidacearum Volume 4 Epidendroideae (Part one); page 93 ff., Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-850712-7. Reference page.

Links

Global Biodiversity Information Facility. 2021. GBIF Backbone Taxonomy. Checklist dataset. Taxon: Calypso bulbosa. Accessed: 2021 Apr 5.
Govaerts, R. et al. 2021. Calypso bulbosa in Kew Science Plants of the World online. The Board of Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Published online. Accessed: 2021 Apr 5. Reference page.
Govaerts, R. et al. 2021. Calypso bulbosa in World Checklist of Selected Plant Families. The Board of Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Published online. Accessed: 2021 Apr 5. Reference page.
Hassler, M. 2021. Calypso bulbosa. World Plants: Synonymic Checklists of the Vascular Plants of the World In: Roskovh, Y., Abucay, L., Orrell, T., Nicolson, D., Bailly, N., Kirk, P., Bourgoin, T., DeWalt, R.E., Decock, W., De Wever, A., Nieukerken, E. van, Zarucchi, J. & Penev, L., eds. 2021. Species 2000 & ITIS Catalogue of Life. Published online. Accessed: 2021 Apr 5. Reference page.
International Plant Names Index. 2021. Calypso bulbosa. Published online. Accessed: 5 Apr 2021.
Tropicos.org 2021. Calypso bulbosa. Missouri Botanical Garden. Published online. Accessed: 5 Apr 2021.

Vernacular names

Deutsch: Norne
English: Calypso orchid
español: Zapatilla de Venus
eesti: Haldjaking
suomi: Neidonkenkä
italiano: Calipso
日本語: ヒメホテイラン
кырык мары: Калипсо
Nederlands: Bosnimf
русский: Калипсо луковичная
svenska: Norna
удмурт: Калипсо
中文: 布袋兰属

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]

Description

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 lives no more than five years.[2]

Flowers

Leaf Top

Leaf underside

White form of Calypso bulbosa var. occidentalis

Taxonomy and systematics

The chromosomes count is 2n = 28. Since the orchid seed does not provide any nutrient tissue, germination only takes place when infected by a Mycorrhizal root fungus.
Taxonomy

The generic name Calypso Salisb, which is still valid today. was described in 1806 by the English gardener Richard Anthony Salisbury (1761-1829) in the work "Paradisus Londinensis", which Salisbury with the then director of the Royal Botanic Gardens in London, William Jackson Hooker (1785-1865), published. Carl von Linné originally assigned the Calypso bulbosa to the genus Cypripedium in 1753. But Calypso and Cypripedium now belong to two different subfamilies.

The following generic names have been published as synonyms:

Cytherea Salisb. (1812)
Orchidium Sw. (1814)
Calypsodium Link (1829)
Norna Wahlenb. (1833)

The valid botanical species name of the Calypso orchid is: Calypso bulbosa (L.) Oakes 1842.

The Basionym Cypripedium bulbosum L. 1753 was described by Linné in "Species Plantarum".

The species names listed here are used as synonyms:

Cytherea bulbosa (L.) House (1905)
Cymbidium boreale Sw. (1799)
Limodorum boreale (Sw.) Sw. (1805)
Calypso borealis (Sw.) Salisb. (1806)
Cytherea borealis (Sw.) Salisb. (1812)

Orchidium arcticum Sw. (1814)
Orchidium boreale (Sw.) Sw. (1816)
Calypsodium boreale (Sw.) Link (1829)
Norna borealis (Sw.) Wahlenb. (1833)
Calypso occidentalis Holz. (1895)

C. bulbosa in "Paradisus Londinensis"

Illustration of Calypso bulbosa as Cypripedium bulbosum by Johann Jacob Roemer in Flora Europaea inchoata (1797)

Illustration of Calypso bulbosa (as syn. Calypso borealis) in "Curtis's Botanical Magazine" vol.54 (N.S. 1) pl. 2763 (1827)

Calypso bulbosa Rchb. F. by Kränzlin, Friedrich; Müller, Walter in Abbildungen der in Deutschland und den angrenzenden gebieten vorkommenden grundformen der orchideenarten (1904)

Varieties

Four natural varieties and one nothovariety (variety of hybrid origin but established in the wild) are recognized:[1]

Image	Subspecies	Distribution
	Calypso bulbosa var. americana (R.Br.) Luer	most of Canada, western and northern United States
	Calypso bulbosa var. bulbosa	Sweden, Finland, Baltic States, much of Russia, Mongolia, Korea
	Calypso bulbosa nothovar. kostiukiae Catling	Alberta (C. bulbosa var. americana × C. bulbosa var. occidentalis)
	Calypso bulbosa var. occidentalis (Holz.) Cockerell	from Alaska and British Columbia south through the Cascades, Rockies, and Sierra Nevada to California
	Calypso bulbosa var. speciosa (Schltr.) Makino	Japan, China (Gansu, Jilin, Nei Mongol, Sichuan, Tibet, Yunnan)[3]

This species' range is circumpolar,[4] and includes California, the Rocky Mountain states and most of the most northerly states of the United States; most of Canada; Scandinavia much of European and Asiatic Russia; China, Mongolia, Korea and Japan—see external links for map.[1][5] It is found in subarctic swamps and marshes as well as shady places subarctic coniferous forests.

Although the calypso orchid's distribution is wide, it is very susceptible to disturbance, and is therefore classified as threatened or endangered in several U. S. states and in Sweden and Finland. It does not transplant well[2] owing to its mycorrhizal dependence on specific soil fungi. The corms have been used as a food source by North American native peoples. The Nlaka'pamux of British Columbia used it as a treatment for mild epilepsy.[6]

At least near Banff, Alberta, the calypso orchid is pollinated by bumble bees (Bombus (Pyrobombus) and B. Psithyrus). It relies on "pollination by deception", as it attracts insects to anther-like yellow hairs at the entrance to the pouch and forked nectary-like structures at the end of the pouch but produces no nectar that would nourish them. Insects quickly learn not to revisit it. Avoiding such recognition may account for some of the small variation in the flower's appearance.[5][7]
References

Kew World Checklist of Selected Plant Families
Coleman, Ronald A. (2002), The Wild Orchids of Arizona and New Mexico, Nature, pp. 21–26, ISBN 0-8014-3950-7, retrieved 2009-06-27
Flora of China v 25 p 252, 布袋兰 bu dai lan, Calypso bulbosa var. speciosa
C.Michael Hogan, ed. 2010. Calypso bulbosa. Encyclopedia of Life.
Boyden, Thomas C. (1982), "The pollination biology of Calypso bulbosa var. Americana (Orchidaceae): Initial deception of bumblebee visitors", Oecologia, 55 (2): 178–184, Bibcode:1982Oecol..55..178B, doi:10.1007/bf00384485, PMID 28311231, S2CID 12587703
Moerman, Daniel E. (1998), Native American ethnobotany, Timber Press, p. 133, ISBN 0-88192-453-9
Mosquin, T. (1970), "The Reproductive Biology of Calypso bulbosa (Orchidaceae)", Can. Field-Nat. (84): 291–296 Summarized by Coleman and by Boyden