Masdevallia phoebe Luer & Hirtz 2005 SUBGENUS Polyantha SECTION Alaticaules SUBSECTION Alaticaules [Krzl.] Luer 1986
Photo by © Lourens Grobler
TYPE Drawing by Carl Luer
Common Name Phoebe's Masdevallia [Greek Moon Goddess an allusion to the shape of the synsepal]
Flower Size .8" [2 cm]
Found in Zamora Chinchipe province of southern Ecuador at elevations around 1200 meters as a mini-miniature sized, cool growing, caespitose epiphyte with erect, slender ramicauls enveloped by 2 loose, tubular sheaths and carrying a single, apical, erect, coriaceous, narrowly elliptical-obovate, subacute, gradually narrowing below into the insdistinct, petiolate base leaf that blooms in the summer on a slender, arising from low on the ramicaul, with a basal bract, triquetrous, 3.2 to 4" [8 to 10 cm] long, successively single, few flowered inflorescence with a thin, tubular, longer than the ovary floral bract.
"Distinguished by the small habit, a narrow, obscurely petiolate leaf and a relatively slender peduncle about as long as the leaf. The flowers are produced successively in a short raceme. Most apparent is the broadly expanded, orbicular synsepal with a pair of tiny tails and overlain by an elongateed dorsal sepal. The petals bear a short, thick tooth at the base. The lip is divided into a narrrow, tubular epichilee and a twice broader, oblong hypochile." Luer 2000
Synonyms Alaticaulia phoebe (Luer & Hirtz) Luer 2006
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; * Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XXVII Systematics of Dryadella Systematics of Macrophyllae-Fasciculatae Luer 2005 drawing fide; Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XXVIII Luer 2006 as Alaticaulia phoebe; Orchidaceae Masdevallia and Affiliates Dodson & Luer 2009 as Alaticaulia phoebe drawing fide; Orchids Masdevallia with its segregates including Dracula Zelenko 2014 photo fide;
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