Masdevallia cuprea Lindl.1843 SUBGENUS Polyantha SECTION Alaticaules SUBSECTION Alaticaules [Krzl.] Luer 1986
Photo courtesy of Eric Hunt, plant grown by Dan Newman of Hanging Gardens.
Photo courtesy of Patricia Harding.
Drawing of what was M hepatica
Drawing by Helmut Seehauer
Common Name The Coppery Masdevallia
Flower Size 3/8" [1 cm]
Found in Venezuela, Guyana, Fr Guiana, Surinam, northern Brazil, Ecuador and Peru at an elevation of 800 to 1500 meters as a miniature to small sized, warm to cool growing, caespitose epiphyte with erect ramicauls enveloped by 2 to 3 tubular sheaths carrying a single, apical, erect, coriaceous, narrowly elliptic, subacute leaf that gradually narrows into an indistinct petiole that blooms in the summer and fall on an erect, arising from low on the ramicaul, congested, successively few flowered, [2 3/8" to 4 3/8" [6 to 11 cm] long, racemose, triquetrous, slender inflorescence with imbricating, tubular, shprter to longer than the pedicel floral bracts and holding the single flower at mid-leaf height.
"Characterized by varying length peduncles, from shorter in the Guianas than the leaves to longer from Amazonian Ecuador and Peru. The purplish flowers are borne in slow succession. The apices of the lateral sepals are obtuse and tailless. Often a slight narrowing below the tip imparts a nipple-like appearance, especially plants form the western area of distribution. The petals are oblong with the obtuse tip obscurely and variably notched or toothed. The lips are divided by lateral folds near the middle, but monor variations are legion. The flowers remind one of M bicolor without tails." Luer 2000
Synonyms Alaticaulia cuprea (Lindl.) Luer 2006; Masdevallia cayennensis Rchb.f 1855; Masdevallia cuprea subsp. hepatica (Luer) Luer 1988; Masdevallia hepatica Luer 1979
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Orchidaceae Brasilense Band 1 Pabst & Dungs 1975 drawing fide; Systematics of Masdevallia Vol 2 Luer 1986; Systematics of Masdevallia Vol 2 Luer 1986 as Masdevalllia hepatica; Icones Orchidacearum Peruviarum Plate 288 Bennett & Christenson 1995; Icones Pleurothallidinarum XIX Systematics of Masdevallia Part 1 Luer 2000 drawing fide; Masdevallia's in Kleur Vol 1 P M Oversteegen, Eisses & A P Sijm 2001 photo fide; Masdevallia's in Kleur Vol 1 P M Oversteegen, Eisses & A P Sijm 2001 as M hepatica photo fide; Native Ecuadorian Orchids Vol 3 Dodson 2002 photo fide; Icones Pleurothallidinarum XXV Systematics of Masdevallia Part Five Luer 2003; Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XXVIII Luer 2006 as Alaticaulia cuprea; Orchid Species of Peru Zelenko Bermudez 2009 photo fide; Orchidaceae Masdevallia and Affiliates Dodson & Luer 2009 as Alaticaulia cuprea drawing fide; Orchids Masdevallia with its segregates including Dracula Zelenko 2014 photo fide;
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