Masdevallia don-quijote Luer & Andreetta 1985 SUBGENUS Polyantha SECTION Alaticaules SUBSECTION Alaticaules [Krzl.] Luer 1986
Photos courtesy of Marius Wasbauer
Photo courtesy of Joseph Dougherty
TYPE Drawing by Carl Luer
Common Name Refers to the flowers forward facing long, lance-like dorsal sepal, and the lateral sepals resembling the bowed legs of a horseman carrying a lance that brings to mind the fictional character]
Flower Size 2" [5 cm]
Found in Ecuador at elevations of 1000 to 1700 meters as a miniature sized, cool growing epiphyte with erect, stout ramicauls enveloped basally by 2 to 3 loose, tubular sheaths carrying a single, apical , thickly coriaceous, erect, elliptical, acute, gradually narrowing below into the stout petiole that blooms in the spring on an erect, arising from the base of the ramicaul, congested, racemose, successively flowered, slender, erect, triquetrous, 8 to 12" [20 to 30 cm] long inflorescence with imbricating, shorter to as long as the pedicel floral bracts.
"Easily identified by the long, lance-like, forwardly directed dorsal sepal and the coarsely verrucose synsepal with revolute margins produced into a pair of long diverging tails." Luer 2000
The sepals are long-attenuate, the laterals coarsely verrucose." Luer 1985
Synonyms Alaticaulia don-quijote (Luer & Andreetta) Luer 2006
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; * Phytologia 57: 63 Luer 1985; Systematics of Masdevallia Vol 2 Luer 1986; 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; Native Ecuadorian Orchids Vol 3 Dodson 2002 drawing/photo fide; Icones Pleurothallidinarum XXV Systematics of Masdevallia Part Five Luer 2003; Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XXVIII Luer 2006 as Alaticaulia don-quijote; Orchidaceae Masdevallia and Affiliates Dodson & Luer 2009 as Alaticaulia don quijote drawing fide; masdcocapatae.jpg
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