Please, never pick or attempt to transplant 
Orchids (or any other) wild plant. 
Click to purchase plants from legitimate plant nurseries.
Many Orchids are endangered:
Orchid habitat is very specialized,
Orchid pollination is very specialized,
Orchid germination is very specialized.
Admire them in the wild and let them live.

Also see Corallorhiza maculata,  Epipactis gigantea, Cypripedium parviflorum, and Green Orchids.

Click for Scotty Smith's "Orchids of Colorado".

Blooming information withheld to protect the Orchids.

Calypso Orchids are quite difficult to spot among the other plant life of the forest floor.  The Orchids are very slender, have only one basal leaf, and although the plants do sometimes occur in patches by the dozens, they often grow singly and scattered. Calypso bulbosa's marvelous symmetry, contrasting magentas, whites, yellows, and purples, and overall delicate flamboyance are haunting and make this species a favorite of many plant lovers.

Sepals and petals combine various shades of pink, violet, white, and even creamy orange.

The second photo at left shows Calypso bulbosa in bud, just a few days before bursting open in beauty.

The photographs immediately below show that basal leaves following the moist winter and spring of 2016 are a turgid, chlorophyll rich green but those following the drought winter and spring of 2012 are a flaccid, chlorophyll starved yellow/green. According to "Intermountain Flora" the single leaf is "produced from the summit of the corm [underground swollen bulb-like base of a stem] late in the season and persist[s] through the winter, withering in the summer" after the plant flowers.

This wonderful Orchid is found in all Western U. S. states and along the northern tier of states as one heads East.  It is also found in Eurasia and was first collected in Siberia. In 1753 it was described by Linnaeus who named it Cypripedium bulbosum.  William Oakes (1799-1848) renamed it Calypso bulbosa in 1842.

A number of photographs on this page were taken in Montezuma County, Colorado, and they constitute new records for that county.

In 1789 the Orchid Family (Orchidaceae) was named by Antoine Jussieu elevating Linnaeus' genus name, "Orchis", to the name of the family. Linnaeus used the Greek word "orchis", meaning "testicle", because of the shape of the roots. Calypso, the daughter of Atlas, lived a solitary life on an island where she made life very sweet for the occasional sailor washed up on her shores.

Please, never pick or attempt to transplant 
this (or any other) wild plant. 
Purchase plants from legitimate plant nurseries.

For more information on Colorado Orchids, click for Scotty Smith's "Orchids of Colorado". Scotty's widely praised article includes photographs, line drawings, and descriptive information.

Range map © John Kartesz,
Floristic Synthesis of North America

State Color Key

Species present in state and native
Species present in state and exotic
Species not present in state

County Color Key

Species present and not rare
Species present and rare
Species extirpated (historic)
Species extinct
Species noxious
Species exotic and present
Native species, but adventive in state
Eradicated
Questionable presence

Range map for Calypso bulbosa