51. Calypso Salisbury, Parad. Lond. plate 89. 1807.
[name conserved]
Calypso, fairy-slipper [Greek kalypso, a figure in Homer’s Odyssey]
Charles J. Sheviak & Paul M. Catling
Herbs, perennial, rather succulent. Roots few, slender, fleshy. Stems scapose; corm slender to stout, fleshy; sheathing bracts usually 2, partially cloaking stem. Leaves produced in autumn, withering spring, solitary, arising from corm, plicate, leathery. Inflorescences terminal, each with 1 flower, arising from corm; floral bract with color of stem or sepals, reduced to prominent. Flowers solitary, resupinate, horizontal to slightly nodding, large, showy; sepals and petals ascending to erect; lip slipper-shaped, with basal orifice and 2 horns near apex, margin of lip dilated, forming bearded, apronlike lamina; pollinarium solitary; pollinia 4, flattened, superposed in 2 pairs flanking axis of pollinarium; viscidia large, quadrangular; stigma concave. Fruits capsules.
Species 1: circumboreal.
