Japanese Lady's Slipper Orchid - Kumagaiso

Habitat:

Abandoned Cryptomeria japonica plantation. Growing best where some light penetrated the canopy.

Notes:

The Japanese common name Kumagaiso refers to the samurai, Kumagai Naozane who, when in battle carried a big cloth, which billowed up like a balloon behind his horse and made it very hard for arrows to hit him! The flower is increasingly rare and under threat both from collection (I saw wild collected plants for sale on one roadside flower stall) and from continued destruction of its remaining habitat.