Masdevallia luerorum Bogarín, Oses & C.M.Sm. 2017 SUBGENUS Polyantha SECTION Polyanthae SUBSECTION Successiviflorae Luer 2000
Photo by C M Smith/TYPE LCDP by D. Bogarín and L.OseLisa
EARLIER
Common Name The Luer's Masdevallis [American husband and wife botanists in the Pleurothallidinae]
Flower Size .4" [1 cm]
Found in San Jose province of Costa Rica on the Pacific slope in premontane wet forests at elevations around 500 meters as a mini-miniature sized, hot to warm growing epiphyte with erect, abbreviated ramicauls enveloped by 2 to 3 ribbed, tubular sheaths and carrying a single, apical, erect to suberect, coriaceous, bright green, obelliptic, obtuse, emarginate, with a short apiculus, gradually narrowing below into the petiolate base leaf that blooms in the summer and earlier fall on a suberect, peduncle few brown spotted, 1.8 to 2.8" [4.5 to 7 cm] long, provided with 3 tubular bracts, one near the pedicel and the other 2 below the middle, single flowered inflorescence with tubular, shorter than the pedicel floral bracts.
"Masdevallia luerorum can be distinguished from other Costa Rican species by its broad yellow sepals suffused with reddish-purple. Morphologically, it resembles Masdevallia lata . However, the sepals are longer in M. lata than in M. luerorum (dorsal sepal 1.2" vs 1.52 to 2.72" [30 mm vs. 38 to 68 mm], lateral sepals 1.12" vs 1.4 to 2.6" [28 mm vs. 34 to 65 mm]. The color of the sepals is also distinct; there is much more yellow in the lateral sepals of M. luerorum and they are suffused with reddish-purple, while in M. lata the sepals are a much darker brownish-red, with yellow restricted to the dorsal sepal and the tails (Luer 2000). The synsepal of M. lata is laterally compressed whereas in M. luerorum it forms a cylindrical tube that expands to a more open lamina. Masdevallia luerorum has a small mentum beneath the column foot, a small secondary mentum and between the two mentums a slight deflection, whereas M. lata has a much larger mentum beneath the column foot and a larger secondary mentum and a very conspicuous deflection between the two menta (Luer 2000). The two species also present differences in the lip. The marginal folds in M. lata are above the middle, whereas in M. luerorum they are below to the middle. Furthermore, in M. lata the lip is divided into a well-defined hypochile and epichile, whereas in M. luerorum, this division is less evident. The apex of the lip in M. luerorum is rounded and conspicuously verrucose versus an obtuse and minutely verrucose apex in M. lata (Luer 2000)." Bogarin etal 2017
Synonyms
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; * LANKESTERIANA 17(2): 237 Bogarin, Oses & C M Sm. 2017 photo/drawing fide;
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