Dracula erythrochaete (Rchb.f.) Luer 1978 SUBGENUS Dracula SECTION Dracula SUBSECTION Dracula SERIES Parviflorae
Photo by Copyright © Gary Meyer
Photo byAndy's Orchids Copyright © 2002 All rights reserved.
Drawing by © Carl Luer
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Common Name The Red-Tufted Dracula
Flower Size to about 2" [5 cm]
CAUTION!!!! See Below -- The species photo and description here, which has been accepted as this species for a century, !!! may not be correct!!! !!!I am searching for the correct species photo!!!!!! Here is a drawing by Consantine in the manner that Reichenbach describes
Found in Alajuela, Cartago and San Jose provinces of Costa Rica and Chiriqui and Boca del Toro provinces of Panama at altitudes up to 2100 meters, as a small sized, cool to cold growing epiphytic plant with a short creeping rhizome and short, erect ramicauls carrying a single, apical, erect, coriaceous, oblanceolate or linear-lanceolate, tridenticulate at the obtuse apex, 8" [20 cm] long, bright green leaves that are close together on the rhizome, that blooms in spring and summer on thin pendulous, provided with ovate bracts, to 10" [25 cm] long, slender, terete, basally sheathed, successively single flowered inflorescence with tubular, shorter than the pedicel carrying non-fragrant, apical flowers that slowly open one at a time.
CAUTION!!!!!!!!! D erythrochaete has been misidentified for at least 100 years. Here is Reichenbach's original description of Masdevallia erythrochaete, the basionym of Dracula erythrochaete, which states that it has an erect 4" [10 cm] long inflorescence with pure white and light yellow sepals with reddish purple tails.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
They do best in baskets so as to accomodate the multi-pendulous spikes that radiate in all directions on a mature well grown plant.
Synonyms Dracula burbidgeana (Rolfe) Luer 1978 ; Dracula erythrochaete var gaskelliana [Rchb.f]Luer 1987; Dracula gaskelliana [Rchb.f] Luer 1978; Masdevallia astuta Rchb.f 1886; Masdevallia burbidgeana Rolfe 1893; *Masdevallia erythrochaete Rchb.f 1882; Masdevallia erythrochaete var. gaskelliana (Rchb. f.) Woolward 1896; Masdevallia gaskelliana Rchb.f 1883
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Gard. Chron., n.s. 18(456): 392-393 Rchb.f 1882 as Masdevallia erythrochaete; Die Orchideen Schlechter 1915 as Masdevallia erythrochaete; Atlas des Orchidees Cultivees Constantin 1920 as Masdevallia erythrochaete drawing hmm; Encyclopedia of Cultivated Orchids Hawkes 1965 as Masdevallia erythrochaete; AOS Bulletin Vol 48 No 7 1979 photo fide; * Selbyana 2(2-3): 195 Luer 1978; Orquideologia Vol 13 No 1 1978; AOS Bulletin Vol 56 No 8 1987 photo fide; Orchids Travel By Air A Pictoral Safari Mulder, Mulder-Roelfsema and Schuiteman 1990 photo fide; The Manual of Cultivated Orchids Bechtel, Cribb & Laurent 1992 photo fide; The Illustratred Encyclopedia of Orchids Pridgeon, 1992 photo fide; Thesaurus Dracularum Vol 6 Luer, Escobar and Dalstroem 1993 watercolor/drawing fide; Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XXIV Luer 2002 drawing fide; Manual of Orchids Stewart 1995; Orchid Digest Vol 61 #4 1997 photo fide; Australian Orchid Review Vol 65 No 6 2000 photo; Manual de Plantas de Costa Rica Vol 3 Hammel, Grayum, Herrera and Zamora 2003 drawing fide; Vanishing Beauty, Native Costa Rican Orchids Vol 1 Pupulin 2005 photo fide; Vanishing Beauty, Native Costa Rican Orchids Vol 1 Pupulin 2005 as D erythrochaete var alba; AOS Bulletin vol 78 No 10 2009 photo fide; Orchids Masdevallia with its segregates including Dracula Zelenko 2014 photo fide; Orchid Genera and Species in Guatemala Archila, Szlachchetko, Chiron, Lipinska, Mystkowska and Bertolini 2018 photo fide Lankesteriana 19(1). 31 - 55 2019 photo fide to photos above
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