Masdevallia superbiens Luer & Hirtz 2005 SUBGENUS Amanda Luer 1986
Photo by Alfonso Doucette Copyright © 2009, and His Flicker website
TYPE Drawing by Carl Luer
Common Name The Very Fine Masdevallia
Flower Size 1" [2.5 cm]
Found in Bolivar province of Ecuador at elevations around 2800 meters as a miniature sized, cold growing, caespitose epiphyte with stout ramicauls enveloped by 2 to 3, loose, tubular sheaths and carrying a single, apical, erect, coriaceous, elliptical, subacute to obtuse, cuneate below into the petiolate base leaf that blooms in the spring and summer on a stout, arising from low on the ramicaul with a bract on the lower third, erect, 6 to 7.2" [15 to 18 cm] long, loose, simultaneously opeing, several flowered inflorescence with an inflated, longer than the ovary floral bract.
"Superficially similar to M dalestroemii but the flowers of M superbiens are wjite with red-purple spots and transverse bars on the sepals near the margins. The dorsal sepal is round, concave and much wider than that of M dalestroemii. The petals are sharply acute and the epicile of the lip is round, wider than the hypochile and not recurved." Luer 2005
Synonyms Spilotantha superbiens (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 Spilotantha superbiens; Orchidaceae Masdevallia and Affiliates Dodson & Luer 2009 as Spilotantha superbiens drawing fide; Orchids Masdevallia with its segregates including Dracula Zelenko 2014 photo fide; Orchid Digest Vol 83 #1 2019 photo fide;
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
