A rare yellow slipper orchid of southwestern China, Cypripedium farreri

Please visit us at: http://botanyboy.org/ Also, check out the companion article at: http://botanyboy.org/cypripedium-farr... In late June 2013 I was lucky enough to visit the home of one of the world's rarest lady slipper orchid species, Cypripedium farreri, on a botanical tour to Sichuan, China. This plant has only been found in four known localities in the entire world, all in the Hengduan Mountains in southwestern China. The valley in which we saw it luckily is not in danger of being developed, and yet the plants are not totally safe there. The reason why is simple - plant collectors would love to get their hands on them. To put some perspective on this, we saw only 20 or so flowering plants in the entire area while many hundreds C. flavum, C. bardolphianum, and C. tibeticum were to be seen. It would take only one person a few hours to literally wipe out this colony. For that reason I'm keeping its exact location a secret. Enjoy the video - perhaps less than a few dozen people outside of China have ever seen this one in flower in the wild, and now you can be one of them!