Pink Lady Slippers

Hello there. I hope you are having a good week.

I found these glorious Pink Lady Slippers blooming in a nearby pine forest and was thrilled. They are endangered because they are so slow-growing and need a certain fungus in the soil to germinate.  It was fun to find such a lively cluster.  When I looked up their ancient medicinal uses I found that they were used for insomnia by Native Americans, which leads us right into today’s longer post! (You can’t use these anymore because they’re illegal to pick and essential oils are easier to work with anyway!)