Ukraine's nature conservation series has produced dozens of circulating commemoratives, but this issue marks the Lady's Slipper orchid (*Cypripedium calceolus*) — one of Europe's most legally protected wildflowers, listed in the Bern Convention and Ukraine's own Red Data Book. Wild collection has been prohibited for decades, yet black-market harvesting remains a documented problem across the Carpathian range where the species still clings to limestone woodland edges.
Ukraine's nature conservation series has produced dozens of circulating commemoratives, but this issue marks the Lady's Slipper orchid (*Cypripedium calceolus*) — one of Europe's most legally protected wildflowers, listed in the Bern Convention and Ukraine's own Red Data Book. Wild collection has been prohibited for decades, yet black-market harvesting remains a documented problem across the Carpathian range where the species still clings to limestone woodland edges.