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Species library › Cypripedium › Cypripedium passerinum
Orchids Well documented

Cypripedium passerinum

The sparrow's-egg lady's slipper, a small white-flowered Cypripedium of the boreal north from Alaska to Quebec. It grows on moist calcareous gravel and moss in spruce woods, river terraces and lakeshores, needs a long frozen dormancy, and is notoriously difficult in cultivation.

Cypripedium passerinum
Photo: Jason Hollinger, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
At home, aim for
Day Cool-growingTargets in Plantistry
Night Close to the dayTargets in Plantistry
Humidity Ordinary room humidityBand in Plantistry
Light Bright, filtered lightDLI and PPFD in Plantistry
Expects a seasonal restGrows in the ground

Where it grows wild

Moist spruce forest at low elevation, tundra, dunes, river terraces, lakeshores and streambanks, on calcareous soils among willows, sedges and mosses.

Recorded at 4–2100 m (median 650 m); mostly low, rising into the Rockies in the south.

AlaskaYukonNorthwest TerritoriesNunavutBritish ColumbiaAlbertaSaskatchewanManitobaOntarioQuébecMontana

🔒 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

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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 2.0 licence, unmodified.