Species library › Cypripedium › Cypripedium elegans
Orchids Partly documented

Cypripedium elegans

A tiny, endangered Himalayan lady's slipper from high-altitude thickets and forest margins. It needs a cool summer, a long frozen dormancy and a moist, humus-rich but airy root zone, which makes it a specialist's plant.

Cypripedium elegans
Photo: Siddarth Jude Machado, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
At home, aim for
Day Cool-growingTargets in Plantistry
Night Close to the dayTargets in Plantistry
Humidity Humid airBand in Plantistry
Light Dappled lightDLI and PPFD in Plantistry
Expects a seasonal restGrows in the ground

Where it grows wild

Thickets, forest margins and humus-rich soil within forest, at high altitude in the Himalaya.

The few dated records sit around 3650 m; the species is alpine to subalpine.

NepalBhutanIndiaTibetYunnan

🔒 Growing it like that

The wild conditions above, turned into targets for a shelf, a tent or a greenhouse. The full profile has:

✓ Day and night temperature targets, and the limits it tolerates
✓ Humidity band, and how to hold it
✓ Light as DLI and PPFD for a grow light
✓ Wet and dry seasons, and whether to rest it
✓ Substrate and airflow
✓ A step-by-step setup to grow it like the wild

Grow Cypripedium elegans? Add it to a free garden and its full profile opens. Pro opens all 38,374 profiles in the library, plants and fungi.

Profiles are drafts built from measured range and climate and from published sources; each section carries its own confidence in the app. Photo from Wikimedia Commons, used under its CC BY 4.0 licence, unmodified.