Dracula immunda A.Doucette 2011 SUBGENUS Dracula SECTION Dracula SUBSECTION Dracula SERIES Parviflorae
Photo by © A Doucette and the The Epidendra Website
TYPE Drawing by © Alphonso Doucette and Phytotaxa 16: 38–43, f. 1–4. Doucette 2011
Common Name or Meaning The Unclean Dracula [refers to the white sepals stained and spotted with purple]
Flower Size .8" [2 cm]
Found in Veraguas department of Panama in cloud forests at elevations around 1000 to 1200 meters as a miniature to small sized, cool growing epiphyte with a relatively semiterete, erect, ramicauls enveloped by 3 sheaths and carrying a single, apical, erect, thinly coriaceous, narrowly elliptic-ligulate, acute, gradually narrowing below into the indistinct petiolate base leaf that blooms at most any time of the year in cultivation on a horizontal to descending, slender, terete, subverrucose, green suffused with purple, arising from low on the ramicaul, provided with 6 to 11, transluscent bracts, 1.6 to 6.4" [4 to 16 cm] long, loose, successively few flowered inflorescence with a much shorter than the pedicel floral bract.
"Dracula immunda is most similar to D. ripleyana; both species have small flowers with a similar color pattern (white with a purple central mark) and an epichile with a textured surface. The small flowers and color pattern distinguish D. immunda and D. ripleyana from the other species in the D. erythrochaete complex. Dracula immunda is distinct from D. ripleyana in having sepals that are more strongly cupped, plus shorter tails and a unique lip. There is a subtle difference between the petals and column of Dracula immunda and those of D. ripleyana. The petals of Dracula immunda are stouter and the outer lamina of the petal does not reflex as greatly as those of D. ripleyana. The petals are more tightly held against the column in flowers of D. immunda than in flowers of D. ripleyana. The column of D. immunda is stouter and more hunched than that of D. ripleyana. The specimens examined do not show variation in the diagnostic features that are intermediate between Dracula immunda and D. ripleyana. This new species differs from all previously described species by the ovoid epichile that is the same width or narrower than the hypochile and muricate externally and has three closely spaced lamellae that reach the margin." Doucette 2011
Synonyms
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; * Phytotaxa 16: 38–43, f. 1–4. Doucette 2011 photo/drawing fide; Orchids Masdevallia with its segregates including Dracula Zelenko 2014 photo fide;
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