Cypripedium candidum is found from western New York, across southern Ontario to North Dakota, and south to New Jersey and Missouri.

[9][10] Its white pouch-like lip, sometimes dotted with maroon on the inside, is accented by tan, green or brown lateral sepals and petals.

It is a perennial, with horizontal, wiry-rooted rhizomes growing a few centimeters below the surface of the soil, and hence resistant to most prairie fires.

Habitat loss due to fragmentation through agriculture and development, suppression of fire, incursions by invasive species, especially reed canary grass (Phalaris arundinacea), dogwood (Cornus sp.

), changes in hydrology, loss of pollinators, hybridization[7] and environmental challenges to the obligate mycorrhizae that support this species are all responsible for its decline.

[8] Long-term monitoring of this species is being done through various scientific organizations, including the Chicago Botanic Garden's Plants of Concern program.

[8] Woody encroachment is considered the greatest modern threat to monitored small white lady's slipper populations in the Chicago region.