Plants erect, 12-35 cm. Leaves 2 (-3,very rarely), on middle half of stem, alternate to subopposite, wide-spreading; blade lance-ovate to ovate-suborbiculate, 5-15 × 1.5-8 cm. Flowers solitary, erect; sepals white with pink to reddish or magenta markings; dorsal sepal ovate- to suborbiculate-elliptic, 12-28 × 6-19 mm; lateral sepals connate, synsepal 12-21 × 3-8 mm; petals spreading, same color as sepals, lanceolate-subpandurate (constricted near apex), flat, 10-20 × 4-9 mm, slightly shorter than to equaling lip, margins undulate-revolute to slightly spiraled; lip similarly colored, subglobose to obovoid, 15-30 mm; orifice basal, 10-24 mm; staminode oblong-quadrangular to broadly ellipsoid or ovoid. 2n = 20, 20.

Flowering Jun--Jul. Moist to dry open deciduous and spruce forest, tundra, meadows, scree; 0--800 m; N.W.T., Yukon; Alaska; Asia.

Cypripedium guttatum has been reported from British Columbia (D. S. Correll 1950), apparently based on a single collection of C. parviflorum (M. G. Henry 119 GH, PH). See the discussion under 4. C. yatabeanum.