White Lady's Slipper

[JohnL]

The image below is of a normal sized Lady's Slipper but is it a mutant of a Pink Lady's Slipper or is it a separate species altogether? I have seen some white Lady's Slippers with very faint pink veins but this one is as white as you can get. Any thoughts?

JohnL

 

[nartreb]

Albino variant of Pink Lady's Slipper, C. Acaule. The ones with faint pink veins also have darker pigment in the three green petals; the pure-white ones seem to be true albinos. I have a post about it somewhere on VFTT...

Ah, here we go, in the midst of 2009 flower thread that had a bunch of interesting mutants:
examples of pale vs albino C. acaule


I've also got a gallery of C. acaule color range, roughly arranged in dark-to-light order (plus buds at the end):

 

[Stan]

I tried to grow one, which I acquired from Garden in the Woods (Framingham), to no avail. The pink one is doing well but seems to like more sun than those I've seen growing in the wild. The commercially grown varieties from Garden in the Woods also prefer less acidic soil than I've seen them grow in the wild.

The wild ones are nearly impossible to transplant.

I do remember seeing a trio of lady slippers at Cathedral Pines Campground, Eustice, ME, that were pink, white and yellow! Have an old photo taken with a disposable camera but the color did not come out clear enough to be convincing of the colors.