Long-overdue posting of showy lady’s slippers from a late-June drive through the countryside looking for wildflowers.

This is an enormous clump of at least 50 of these pretty orchids on the side of a quiet road in Mahnomen County in northwest Minnesota:

Showy lady’s slipper is Minnesota’s state flower and is on my car’s license plate, a Critical Habitat specialty plate that supports the state Department of Natural Resources.

I didn’t notice until looking at the pictures after returning home, but some of the photos make it look like the flowers have faces — yellow eyes over a wide-open mouth:

What a treat to see this beautiful flower in the wild.