Dracula inaequalis (Rchb. f.) Luer & R. Escobar 1982 SUBGENUS Dracula SECTION Dracula SUBSECTION Costatae
Photos by © Jay Pfahl
Photo by © David Morris
Photo © by Milan Vagner
Drawing by © Carl Luer
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Common Name The Unequaled Dracula [refers to the supposed unequal size to the the sepals]
Flower Size 2 1/2" [6.5 cm]
Found in Choco, Antioquia and Valle de Cauca departments of Colombia and Ecuador in rainforests and foothills from altitudes of 400? to 2200 meters as a small sized, warm to cold growing epiphyte with erect ramicauls enveloped basally by 2 to 3, loose, tubular sheaths and carrying a single, apical, erect, thinly coriaceous, carinate, narrowly elliptical, acute, gradually narrowing below into the conduplicate, indistinct petiolate base leaf that blooms in the late spring through early fall on a slender, pendulous, arising from low on the ramicaul with 2 to 3 suppressed bracts, 7" [17.5 cm] long, successively few flowered inflorescence with a tubular, shorter to as long as the pedicel floral bract and holding a single bell shaped flower well below the plant.
"Easily recognized by the broadly cylindrical, cup-like, white, sepaline tube, usually with a broad band of of more or less coalescing, purple spots around the middle. In some forms the purple dspots are very faint or absent. The size of the cup is also variable. The tails can be longer or shorter and the concave epipchile of the lip is short and transverse and microscopically verrucose within instead of carinate or lamellate." Luer 1993
Synonyms Dracula carderi [Rchb.f]Luer 1978; Masdevallia carderi Rchb. f. 1883; *Masdevallia inequalis Rchb. f. 1874
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Die Orchideen Schlechter 1915 as Masdevallia carderi; Atlas des Orchidees Cultivees Constantin 1920 as Masdevallia carderi drawing ok; Encyclopedia of Cultivated Orchids Hawkes 1965 as Masdevallia carderi; Die Orchideen 3 Auflage Bd 1 Sonderabdruck aus Schlechter Lieferung 7 385 - 448 Brieger, Maatsch and Senghas 1975 as Masdevallia carderi; Native Colombian Orchids Vol 1 COS 1990 as D carderi photo fide; The Illustratred Encyclopedia of Orchids Pridgeon, 1992 as D carderi; Thesaurus Dracularum Vol 6 Luer, Escobar and Dalstroem 1993 watercolor/drawing fide; Icones Pleurothallidinarum X Systematics of Dracula Luer 1993 drawing fide; ; Manual of Orchids Stewart 1995 as D carderi; Orchid Digest Vol 61 #4 1997 photo fide; Australian Orchid Review Vol 65 No 6 2000 photo; Libro Rojo de Plantas De Colombia Vol 6 Primera Parte Saenz 2007; AOS Bulletin vol 78 No 10 2009 photo fide; Draculas Del Ecuador Pupulin, Merino and Medina 2009 photo fide; Orchids, A Colombian Treasure Vol 1 Ortiz & Uribe 2014 drawing/photo fide; Orchids: Masdevallia with its Segregates Zelenko 2014 photo fide
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