Masdevallia whiteana Luer 1978 SUBGENUS Polyantha SECTION Alaticaules SUBSECTION Alaticaules [Krzl.] Luer 1986
Photo by © Eric Hunt
Photo courtesy of Dale Borders.
TYPE Drawing by Carl Luer
to 
Common Name White's Masdevallia [American Submitter of species 20th cen]
Flower Size 1" [2.2 cm]
Found in Morona-Santiago and Zamora Chinchipe provinces of Ecuador and Amazonas department of Peru in damp forests at elevations of 1500 to 2250 meters as a small sized, cool to cold growing caespitose epiphyte with erect, stout, ramicauls enveloped by 2 to 3 loose, tubular sheaths carrying a single, apical, erect, thickly coriaceous, narrowly elliptical-obovate leaf that gradually narrows into an indistinct, channeled petiole that blooms at most any time of the year on an erect, arising from near the base of the ramicaul, 9.6" to 14.6" [24 to 36 cm] long, successively single, several flowered, triquetrous inflorescence with white, imbricating, shorter to as long as the pedicel floral bracts and one flower held well above the leaf.
"The thickly coriaceous leaves, among the larger of the section, are about twice surpassed by the long peduncle. The unique flowers are borne successively in a congested raceme over a long period of time. The reddish purple sepals are rigidly fleshy and connate into an obliquely subquadrate, laterally compressed synsepal with a deep secondary mentum. The margins of the lateral sepals are contiguous above the appoximate bases of the tails. The dorsal sepal is distinctly larger than the synsepal. The petals are simply oblong and callous along the labellar half. The lip is oblong with marginal folds near the middle." Luer 2000
Synonyms Alaticaulia whiteana (Luer) Luer 2006
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Thesarus Masdevalliarum Vol 1 Luer & Treschslin 1983 watercolor fide; Systematics of Masdevallia Vol 2 Luer 1986; Icones Planetarum Tropicarum Series II Orchids of Peru Plate 102 Dodson & Bennett 1989 drawing fide; Icones Orchidacearum Peruviarum Plate 288 Bennett & Christenson 1995; Icones Pleurothallidinarum XIX Systematics of Masdevallia Part 1 Luer 2000 drawing fide; Masdevallia's in Kleur Vol 1 P M Oversteegen, Eisses & A P Sijm 2001 photo fide; Native Ecuadorian Orchids Vol 3 Dodson 2002 photo fide; Icones Pleurothallidinarum XXV Systematics of Masdevallia Part Five Luer 2003; Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XXVIII Luer 2006 as Alaticaulia whiteana; Orchidaceae Masdevallia and Affiliates Dodson & Luer 2009 as Alaticaulia whiteana drawing fide; Orchids Masdevallia with its segregates including Dracula Zelenko 2014 photo fide;
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