Dracula hirtzii Luer 1979 SUBGENUS Dracula SECTION Dracula SUBSECTION Dracula SERIES Dracula
Photo by © Lourens Grobler
Photo by © Manfred Schmucker plants grown by Akerne Orchids in Belgium
Another Color Form D hirtzii f xanthina
Photos by © Eric Hunt
TYPE Drawing by © Carl Luer
Common Name Hirtz's Dracula [German Engineer, Orchid Enthusiast and Orchid Collector in Ecuador current]
Flower Size 4 x 10" [10 x 25 cm]
Found in Narino department of Colombia and Pichincha and Imbabura province Ecuador as a small to medium sized, cool to cold growing epiphyte in cloud forests at elevations of 1300 to 2100 meters with erect, stout 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 conduplicae, indistinct petiolate base leaf that blooms in the winter and spring on a stout, horizontal to descending, sparsely bracted peduncle, slender, 4 to 8" [10 to 20 cm] long, arising from low on the ramicaul, congested, loosely successively single, few flowered inflorescence with tubular,much shorter than the pedicel floral bracts.
"The large habit with subplicate leaves and dscending peduncles is similar to many species but is distinguished by the lareg, speckled flowres with essentially glabrous sepals. Occasionally very short, yellow ahirs can be seen on the lateral sepals. The epichile of the flexibly attached lip is large with the lateeral margins erect, The margins of the epichile of its relatives with which it can be confused such as Dracula chiroptera and Dracula vampira are distinctly revolute." Luer 1993
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Orchids Travel By Air A Pictoral Safari Mulder, Mulder-Roelfsema and Schuiteman 1990 photo fide; Thesaurus Dracularum Vol 4 Luer, Escobar and Dalstroem 1991 watercolor/drawing fide; Icones Pleurothallidinarum X Systematics of Dracula Luer 1993 drawing fide; Native Ecuadorian Orchids Vol 1 Dodson 1993 photo fide; Australian Orchid Review Vol 65 No 6 2000 photo; AOS Bulletin Vol 74 No 10 2005 photo fide; AOS Bulletin Vol 76 No 2 2007 photo fide; AOS Bulletin Vol 76 No 5 2007 photo fide; Libro Rojo de Plantas De Colombia Vol 6 Primera Parte Saenz 2007; Orchid Digest Vol 72 No 4 2008 photo; AOS Bulletin vol 78 No 10 2009 photo fide; Draculas Del Ecuador Pupulin, Merino and Medina 2009 photo fide; Draculas Del Ecuador Pupulin, Merino and Medina 2009 as M hirtzii fma xanthina photo fide; Flora of Ecuador No 87 225[3] Orchidaceae Dodson & Luer 2010 drawing fide; Orchids Masdevallia with its segregates including Dracula Zelenko 2014 photo fide; AOS Bulletin Vol 80 #5 2011 as D hirtzii f xanthina photo fide; AOS Bulletin Vol 85 #7 2016 as D hirtzii f xanthina photo fide; Orchids, A Colombian Treasure Vol 1 Ortiz & Uribe 2014 drawing/photo fide;
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