Japanese Archival Note Card, Cypripedium No. 586 by Ikeda Zuigetsu: Ranka-Fu Orchid Series

Three flowers, one yellow and two with maroon and white hoods, dangle from bare stems.

This archival note card of the orchid Cypripedium No. 586 from the Ranka-Fu orchid series is from Japan. Cypripedium is the genus of lady's slipper orchids, named for the pouch-shaped lip of the flower, and early twentieth-century growers prized the hybrids raised from them. In a horizontal print, three drooping flowers sit on thin stems against a grey and cream ground. The left is yellow-green, the center has a striped maroon hood and the right has a white top with a pink fringe. It is 5 inches long and 7 high.

Three poses, and none of them is trying too hard.