Masdevallia leathersii Luer 2004 SUBGENUS Amanda Luer 1986

Drawing by © Carl Luer and The Swiss Orchid Foundation at the Jany Renz Herbaria Website

Common Name Leathers' Masdevallia [American Orchid enthusiast and cultivator of species]

Flower Size .4" [1 cm]

Found in Ecuador? without collection data as a miniature sized, caespitose epiphyte with erect, slender ramicuals enveloped by 2 thin, tubular sheaths and carrying a single, apical, erect, thinly coriaceous, narrowly elliptical, acute, narrowing below into the petiolate base leaf that blooms in the fall on a slender, erect, lax, 9.6" [24 cm] long including the slender, 2.4" [6 cm] long peduncle, simultaneously several flowered inflorecence with a bract near the middle and another near the base and arising from low on the ramicaul with thin, inflated, enclosing the pedicel floral bracts.

"Similar to M polysticha but characterized by narrow leaves and a several flowered raceme borne by a much longer, slender peduncle. The sepals are white with a few large, purple blotches and suffused with orange towards the base. The tails are proportionally thick with the tail of the dorsal sepal fusiform. The petals and lip are not unusual. Most distinctive is the smooth, non-costate ovary." Luer 2004

Synonyms Spilotantha leathersii (Luer) Luer 2006

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; * Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XXVI Pleurothallis subgenus Acianthera and Three Allied subgenera, A Second Century of new Species of Stelis of Ecuador, Epibator, Ophidion and Zootrophion Luer 2004 drawing fide; Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XXVIII Luer 2006 as Spilotantha leathersii ;

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------