Dracula marsupialis Luer & Hirtz 1986 SUBGENUS Dracula SECTION Dracula SUBSECTION Dracula SERIES Parviflorae
Photo by © The Ecuagenera Website
Photo by © Eric Hunt
TYPE Drawing by © Carl Luer
Common Name The Marsupial Like Dracula [Refers to the pouched lip, like a Kangaroo would have]
Flower Size 2.8" [7 cm]
Found in Pichincha and Imbabura provinces of Ecuador in wet cloud forests at elevations of 2000 to 2200 meters as a small sized, cold growing epiphyte with erect, stout ramicauls enveloped basally by 2 to 3 loose, tubular shjeaths and carrying a single, apical, erect, thinly coriaceous, carinate, subplicate, elliptical, acute to subacute, gradually narrowing below into the conduplicate, petiolate base leaf that blooms in the spring on a slender, horizontal to descending with the flower facing downwards, arising from low on the ramicaul, provided with a few distant bracts, 12 to 16.8" [30 to 42 cm] long, successively several flowered inflorescence with a tubular, shorter to slightly longer than the pedicel floral bract.
"The broad leaves are subplicate and petiolate and the slender peduncles are descending. The flowers are relatively small with widely spread, microscopically verrucose to pubescent, yellow sepals that are speckled with brown at the apices and bases. The apical margin of the extraordinary epichile of the lip is inflated and reflexed so that a deep pouch is created. Lamellate veins radiate within the pouch with toothed margins. It is similar to Dracula gastrophora which is distinguished by larger, dark brown, cupped flowers." Luer 1993
Synonyms
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Thesaurus Dracularum Vol 5 Luer, Escobar and Dalstroem 1992 watercolor/drawing fide; Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XXIV Luer 2002 drawing fide; Native Ecuadorian Orchids Vol 1 Dodson 1993 Drawing fide; Orchid Digest Vol 61 #4 1997 photo fide; Draculas Del Ecuador Pupulin, Merino and Medina 2009 photo fide; Flora of Ecuador No 87 225[3] Orchidaceae Dodson & Luer 2010; Orchids Masdevallia with its segregates including Dracula Zelenko 2014 photo fide
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