Masdevallia fosterae Luer 1999 SUBGENUS Polyantha SECTION Alaticaules SUBSECTION Alaticaules [Krzl.] Luer 1986

TYPE Drawing by © Carl Luer and Epidendra Orchid Website

Common Name Foster's Masdevallia [American Orchid Enthusiast and discoverer of species late 1900's]]

Flower Size .8" [2 cm]

Found in South America? without collection data as a miniature sized, caespitose epiphyte with stout, erect, ramicauls enveloped by 2, loose, tubular sheaths and carrying a single, apical, erect, thickly coriaceous, elliptical, obtuse, cuneate below into the petiolate base leaf that blooms on an erect, arising from low on the ramicaul, triquetrous, congested, 3.6 to 4.8" [9 to 12 cm] long, a successively single few flowered inflorescence with an inflated, as long as to longer than the pedicel floral bract.

"Distinguished by the ramicaul longer than the leaf and a congested, successively flowered raceme. The sepals are slender-tailed, the dorsal sepal is acute and the laterals are rounded and abruptly caudate. The petals are oblong with longitudinal callus above the margin. The lip is not perticularly distinctive. The ovary is triangular in cross-section with deep clefts between the carpels." LUer 1999

Synonyms Alaticaulia fosterae (Luer) Luer 2006

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; *Icones Pleurothallidinarum XVIII. Systematics of Pleurothallis subgen. Pleurothallis sect. Pleurothallis, subsect. Longiracemosae, subsect. Macrophyllae-Racemosae, subsect. Perplexae, subgen. Pseudostelis, subgen. Acuminatia. Addenda to Dracula, Lepanthes, Masdevallia and Pleurothallis. Miscellaneous new species of Dryadella, Lepanthes and Pleurothallis Luer 1999 drawing fide; Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XXIII Luer 2006 as Alaticaulia fosterae

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