This lifeform is found in Europe. This lifeform is found east of the Continental Divide in North America. The yellow color will help identify this lifeform. This lifeform is locally common in suitable environments.

Small yellow lady's slipper (Cypripedium calceolus parviflora to Cypripedium parviflorum) is the smaller more northern version of the yellow lady's slipper.

Cypripedium genus (lady's slippers) is found in the north temperate zones of both the Old and New World.  This genus is also represented in Mexico. There are about 50 species of terrestrial herbs in this genus.  The plants are slow growing and may take up to four years before flowering. These plants have leafy stems.  The leaves are large and broad with many nerves.  The exotic flowers are large, typically drooping, and very showy.  The flowers have an unusual shape that reminds one of a  lady's slipper or a moccasin.  According to Bentley, there are 11 species of this genus found from Newfoundland to Alaska and south to Florida and the Gulf Coast.  Kartesz lists 13 species, three hybrids, and two subforms for  greater North America, including Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, and Greenland.  This genus has fared poorly in the wild, as man continues to collect and destroy this genus.  In Britain, C. calceolus used to be common, but is now known in the wild through just a few plants.  Several recently discovered Chinese species are already extinct in the wild. This genus was named by Linnaeus.

North American Orchids have been separated out as a subgroup of the Orchid family to facilitate study. Many of the plants are quite subtle in their natural environment and often hard to notice as well as identify. Many are rare. Author Kartesz notes that there are 324 species in greater North America including Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, Hawaii, Alaska, and Greenland. Approximately half that number (about 150) are found in Canada and the lower forty-eight states of North America.

Orchids (Family Orchidaceae) are a worldwide group of 15,000 to 30,000 species and contains some of the most exotic of North American wildflowers and some of the most exotic tropical flowers of  the world. Author Griffiths estimates 17,500 species and author Pridgeon estimates from 25,000 to 30,000 species. This family also contains many very tiny species that have yet to be described in the tropics. Certain species have been the basis for some very exotic hybrid flowers.

Microspermae is a worldwide order generally broken into two families: the Burmannia and Orchids.

Monocots are a large group of plants usually characterized by having leaves with parallel veins and a seed with a single shell. Most flowers are created with multiples of three. In  the older botany texts, the Monocots were considered more primitive than the Dicots. However, many recent authors have placed the Monocots as an offshoot of the primitive Dicots. Here they are placed before the Dicots.

Seed plants (Phylum Embryophyta) are generally grouped into one large phylum containing three major classes: the Gymnosperms, the Monocots, and the Dicots. (Some scientists separate the Gymnosperms into a separate phylum and refer to the remaining plants as flowering plants or Angiospermae.)

For North American counts of the number of species in each genus and family, the primary reference has been John T. Kartesz, author of A Synonymized Checklist of the Vascular Flora of the United States, Canada, and Greenland (1994). The geographical scope of his lists include, as part of greater North America, Hawaii, Alaska, Greenland, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands.

Kartesz lists 21,757 species of vascular plants comprising the ferns, gymnosperms and flowering plants as being found in greater North America (including Alaska, Hawaii, Greenland, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands).

There are estimates within the scientific world that about half of the listed North American seed plants were originally native with the balance being comprised of Eurasian and tropical plants that have become established.

Plant kingdom contains a large variety of different organisms including mosses, ferns, and seed plants. Most plants manufacture their energy from sunlight and water. Identification of many species is difficult in that most individual plants have characteristics that have variables based on soil moisture, soil chemistry, and sunlight.

Because of the difficulty in learning and identifying different plant groups, specialists have emerged that study only a limited group of plants. These specialists revise the taxonomy and give us detailed descriptions and ranges of the various species.  Their results are published in technical journals and written with highly specialized words that apply to a specific group.

On the other hand, there are the nature publishers. These people and companies undertake the challenging task of trying to provide easy to use pictures and descriptions to identify those species.