The Japanese epithet calceolus has a Latin meaning "little shoe," this is in reference to the slipper-like shape of the lip. Yellow lady's slipper orchids are widely found in Europe and Japan. However, in Greece, C. calceolus is now extinct and is an endangered species and in many other countries.

The plants are pollinated by a number of different small bees (Cronquist. 1993). Within the population of C. calceolus, many variants have been taxonomically recognized. According to Cribb, Keller and Soo have recognized the following variants.

C. calceoulus is a terrestial herb, 15-60 cm tall. There are three to five leaves present, taking an elliptic to ovate shape and are about 6-18 cm long and 3-9 cm wide. "Inflorescence is usually one or less, the flowers are showy, the sepal and petals are maroon or yellow spotted with red. The petals are long and slender, and spirally twisted" (Cribb. 1997). The lip takes a form of an oval pouch, that is bright yellow and 3-6.5 cm long (Williams. 1983).

C. calceolus best grows under a partial shady area in open woodland and under conifers, oak, ash, and hazel. It does not need full sunlight at high elevations. The calceolus species also grows on sphangnum moss, bogs, deciduous woods and rock mountain slopes. In the North, flowering occurs from May to July; in the northeastern part of the U. S., flowering occurs from May to June (Williams. 1983).

C. calceolus is distributed throughout the world from the U. S. to Europe to Japan; it also grows in China and Korea (Cribb. 1997). The growth of the calceolus species within the United States can be seen in the following table.