Dracula gorgonella Luer & R. Escobar 1981 SUBGENUS Dracula SECTION Dracula SUBSECTION Dracula SERIES Parviflorae
Photo by © Eric Hunt
Photo by © Ruth Guillard
TYPE Drawing by © Carl Luer
Common Name The Little Gorgon Dracula
Flower Size 2.2 " [5.5 cm]
Found in Antioquia department of Colombia on the eastern slopes of the western cordillera in cloud forests at altitudes of 1700 to 2000 meters and is a small sized, cool growing epiphyte with erect ramicauls enveloped basally by 2 to 3 loose, tubular sheaths and carrying a single, apical, erect, thinly coriaceous, carinate, subplicate, elliptical, acute, gradually narrowing below into the conduplicate, indistinct, subpetiolate base leaf that blooms in the spring on a sparsely bracted, horizontal to descending, arising from low on the ramicaul, [8 to 15 cm] long, loose, successively few flowered inflorescence with a tubular, shorter than the pedicel floral bract.
"Similar vegetatively to Dracula gorgona but florally distinguished by the much smaller flowers, sometimes with the same color pattern, with similarly shaped, round sepals with much shorter tails. The anterior half of the epichile of the rose colored lip is flat or slightly incurved." Luer 1993
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; * Orquideologia Vol 15 #1 Luer & Escobar 1981 drawing/photo fide; Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XXIV Luer 2002 drawing fide; Thesaurus Dracularum Vol 7 Luer, Escobar and Dalstroem 1994 watercolor/drawing fide; Native Colombian Orchids Vol 5 COS 1994 photo fide; Orchid Digest Vol 61 #4 1997 photo fide; Libro Rojo de Plantas De Colombia Vol 6 Primera Parte Saenz 2007 photo fide; AOS Bulletin vol 78 No 10 2009; Orchids, A Colombian Treasure Vol 1 Ortiz & Uribe 2014 drawing/photo fide; Orchids Masdevallia with its segregates including Dracula Zelenko 2014 photo fide; Orchid Digest Vol 81 #2 2017 photo fide;
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