Masdevallia tridens Rchb. f. 1879 SUBGENUS Amanda Luer 1986

Photo by Woodstream Orchids

LATE EARLY

Common Name The Three Toothed Masdevallia

Flower Size 1/2" [1.25 cm]

Found in Ecuador in cloud forests at elevations of 1800 to 2700 meters as a miniature sized, cool to cold growing epiphyte with slender ramicauls enveloped basally by 2 to 3 loose, tubular sheaths and carrying a single, apical, erect, coriaceous, long-petiolate, elliptical, obtuse leaf that is cuneate below into the slender petiole that blooms in the late winter and early spring on an erect then almost horizontal, congested, simultaneously several-flowered, racemose, 8" [20 cm] long inflorescence arising from low on the ramicaul with 3 to 4 evenly spaced, tubular bracts and, thin, oblique, acute, cucullate floral bracts.

This species is similar to M aureoportensis but it has a curved, congested inflorescence of white flowers with sparsely spotted pale purple flowers with transluscent petals.

Synonyms Masdevallia jubar Luer & Malo 1979; Spilotantha tridens (Rchb.f.) Luer 2006

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Otia Botanica Hamburgensia Rchb.f 1878; Systematics of Masdevallia Vol 2 Luer 1986; Native Ecuadorian Orchids Vol 3 Dodson 2002 photo not; Icones Pleurothallidinarum XXV Systematics of Masdevallia Part Five 2003 drawing fide; Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XXVIII Luer 2006 as Spilotantha tridens; Libro Rojo de Plantas De Colombia Vol 6 Primera Parte Saenz 2007 Orchidaceae Masdevallia and Affiliates Dodson & Luer 2009 as Spilotantha tridens drawing fide; Mille et Une Mini Orchideees Roguenant 2009 photo fide; Harvard Papers in Botany, Vol. 17, No. 2, pp. 333 to 368 2012 MISCELLANEOUS NEW SPECIES IN THE PLEUROTHALLIDINAE (ORCHIDACEAE) Carlyle A. Luer; Orchids Masdevallia with its segregates including Dracula Zelenko 2014 photo fide;

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

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