Dracula x pileus Luer & R.Escobar 1979 SUBGENUS Dracula SECTION Dracula SUBSECTION Costatae
Photos by © Gary Meyer
TYPE Drawing by © Carl Luer
Common Name The Cap Dracula [refers to the lips similarity to an inverted cap of a mushroom]
Flower Size 2" [5 cm]
Found in Antioquia department of Colombia without locality as a small to just medium sized, cool to cold growing epiphyte with stout, channeled ramicauls enveloped by 2 to 3 loose, tubular sheaths and carrying a single, apical, erect, coriaceous, more or less plicate, carinate dorsally, obovate, tridenticulate and subacute apically, gradually narrowing below into the indistinct, conduplicate, petiolate base leaf that blooms in the summer on a descending, provided with sparsely spaced bracts, 8 to 18" [20 to 45 cm] long, to 3 distantly flowered inflroescence with a tubular, just shorter than the pedicel floral bract.
Similar to !Dracula chimaera with broad, more or less plicate leaves, long and descending peduncles producing a large, flat, downward facing flower with the long slender tail of the dorsal sepal sometimes reflexed acutely to lie more or less between the tails of the lateral sepals. The sepals are light yellowish and diffusely dotted with red. The large, white, rounded, mushroom-like lip is remarkably different from the lip of either of its reputed parents." Luer 1993
Recent DNA Studies have revealed that this species most likely is a natural hybrid between D bella and Dracula chimaera .
Synonyms
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; *Orquideologia Vol 13 No 2 1979 photo/drawing/herbarium sheet fide; Icones Pleurothallidinarum X Systematics of Dracula Luer 1993 drawing fide; Thesaurus Dracularum Vol 7 Luer, Escobar and Dalstroem 1994 watercolor/drawing fide; AOS Bulletin Vol 65 #12 1996 photo fide; Orchid Digest Vol 61 #4 1997 photo ok; Libro Rojo de Plantas De Colombia Vol 6 Primera Parte Saenz 2007; Orchids Masdevallia with its segregates including Dracula Zelenko 2014 photo ok; Orchids, A Colombian Treasure Vol 1 Ortiz & Uribe 2014 drawing fide;
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