Masdevallia buccinator Rchb.f. & Warsz. 1854 SUBGENUS Polyantha SECTION Alaticaules SUBSECTION Alaticaules [Krzl.] Luer 1986
Photo by Patricia Harding
Photo by Jorge Mario Munera
Drawing by Carl Luer
Common Name The Horn Blower Masdevallia [A reference to the puffed outlateral sepals - like the cheeks of a bugler]
Flower Size 3"+ [7.6 cm]
Found in Santander department of Colombia in oak forests at elevations of 2500 to 2600 meters as a miniature sized, cold growing epiphyte with stout, erect, ramicauls enveloped basally by 2 to 3, loose, tubular sheaths carrying a single, apical, erect, thickly coriaceous, narrowly obovate, subacute to obtuse leaf that is gradually narrowed below into the indistinct petiole and blooms in the spring on an erect, arising from the base of the ramicaul, 9 1/4" [23 cm] long, triquetrous, successively several flowered, racemose inflorescence with tubular, imbricating, shorter than the pedicel floral bracts and often carrying two simultaneous opening flowers.
This species flowers are unique in the genus because of the oddly shaped sepaline tube with the lateral sepals inflated above the middle with their anterior margins held closely together forming a deep, obtusely angled mentum.
Lost for 132 years it was rediscovered in a narrow gold mining valley in 1982.
SynonymsAlaticaulia buccinator (Rchb.f. & Warsz.) Luer 2006
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; * Bonplandia Rchb.f 1854; Orquideologia Vol 16 No 1 1983 drawing fide; Systematics of Masdevallia Vol 2 Luer 1986; Native Colombian Orchids Vol 2 COS 1991 photo fide; Icones Orchidacearum Peruviarum Plate 288 Bennett & Christenson 1995; Icones Pleurothallidinarum XIX Systematics of Masdevallia Part 1 Luer 2000 drawing fide; Madevallia's in Kleur Vol 1 P M Oversteegen, Eisses & A P Sijm 2001 photo fide; AOS Bulletin Vol 72 No 9 2003 photo fide; Icones Pleurothallidinarum XXVIII Luer 2006 as Alaticaulia buccinator; Libro Rojo de Plantas De Colombia Vol 6 Primera Parte Saenz 2007 photo fide; Orchids Masdevallia with its segregates including Dracula Zelenko 2014 photo fide;
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