Cypripedium irapeanum

{{Short description|Species of orchid}}

{{Speciesbox

| image = Cypripedium irapeanum.jpg

| genus = Cypripedium

| species = irapeanum

| authority = Lex. (1825)

| synonyms =

• Cypripedium lexarzae Scheidw. (1839)
• Cypripedium splendidum Scheidw. (1839)
• Cypripedium turgidum Sessé & Moc. (1890)
• Cypripedium luzmarianum R. González & R. Ramírez (1992)

| synonyms_ref =

}}

Cypripedium irapeanum, known as Irapeao's cypripedium or pelican orchid, is a species of orchid found in Mexico and Central America in section irapeana.{{Cite book|last1=Frosch|first1=Werner|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CHxqLwEACAAJ|title=Hardy Cypripedium: Species, Hybrids and Cultivation|last2=Cribb|first2=Phillip|date=2013|publisher=Kew Publishing|isbn=978-1-84246-464-9|language=en}} It is widely distributed from the central Mexico states of Sinaloa and Durango south to Guatemala and Honduras.Cribb. 1993. The genus Cypripedium in Central America. Orquídea (Mexico City) 13(1–3): 205–214.Breedlove, D.E. 1986. Flora de Chiapas. Listados Florísticos de México 4: i–v, 1–246. They are found in mixed pine and oak forests on well-drained limestone slopes and in areas with volcanic and clay soil rich in metals. They can be found in some areas in groups of hundreds.{{Cite web |url=http://www.cypripedium.de/forum/messages/811.html |title=www.cypripedium.de/forum/messages/811.html |access-date=2012-02-04 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120625020954/http://www.cypripedium.de/forum/messages/811.html |archive-date=2012-06-25 |url-status=dead }} They bloom from early June to late July.

The plant is tall, 1 to 1.5 m, and is pubescent with clasping elliptic to lanceolate cauline leaves in a single stem. The showy yellow flowers are 12 cm and open from bottom to top in a raceme of one to eight flowers.[http://www.orchidspecies.com The Internet Orchid Species Photo Encyclopedia] The balloon-shaped lip has a fine net pattern and an open bowl with an enrolled margin. There are purple-brown spots toward the rear of the bowl. They propagate both by rhizomes and from many minute seeds that are propelled from a capsule that erupts from the inferior ovary.Ames, O. & D. S. Correll. 1952. Orchids of Guatemala. Fieldiana, Botany 26(1): i–xiii, 1–395

Some people have reported contact dermatitis after handling these plants, and they are extremely difficult to cultivate as they rely on a symbiotic fungus for nutrients.