The rare and beautiful orchid, the Showy Lady Slipper, can be seen in many magnificent colors along a segment of Hwy 11 between Greenbush and Baudette along the Waters of the Dancing Sky Scenic Byway.

Showy Lady Slippers are extremely hard to establish or transplant. It not only takes very unique soil conditions to originate the growing of a Showy Lady Slipper, but it also takes seven years of growth for the plant to mature, before it will bloom. The Minnesota DNR and DOT have been working together for several years to help preserve the settings that allow the particularly rare flowers of Minnesota to grow in a natural state along the grasslands adjacent to the highways. With less than 1 percent of the state’s original prairie land remaining, the majority of the original prairie lands are found between highway and railroad right-of-ways.