Dracula woolwardiae (F. Lehm. ex Kraenzl.) Luer 1978 SUBGENUS Dracula SECTION Dracula SUBSECTION Dracula SERIES Grandiflorae-Parvilabiate Luer 1993
Photo by © Gary Meyers
Photo by © Eric Hunt
Drawing by © Carl Luer
Common Name Woolward's Dracula [Englishwoman Painter and Orchid Enthusiast 1800's]
Flower Size 4 x 7" [10 cm x 17.5 cm]
Found in El Oro, Bolivar and Imbabura provinces of Ecuador on the western slopes of the Andes in dense forests at elevations around 1200 to 1850 meters as a small to just medium sized, cool growing epiphyte with erect ramicauls envelopd basally by 2 to 3, loose, tubular sheaths and carrying a single, apical, erect, thinly coriaceous, carinate, subplicate, acute, gradually narrowing below into the conduplicate, indistinct, subpetiolate base leaf that blooms in the winter and spring on a horizontal to descending, arising from low on the ramicaul, 6.8" to 10" [17 to 25 cm] long, loose, successively single, several flowered, racemose inflorescence with a tubular, shorter than the pedicel floral bract.
"Similar to Dracula wallisii as both species have large, diffusely spotted and long-pubescent sepals, but differs in the slightly smaller flower with more acute apices of the sepals and a more delicate pubescence. The lips are also similar but L woolwardii is more orbicular without the lateral margins being involute. Both species have mobile lips." Luer 1993
Synonyms *Masdevallia woolwardiae F. Lehm. ex Kraenzl. 1899
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Bot. Jahrb. Syst. 26: 452. Rchb.f1899; Orchids Travel By Air A Pictoral Safari Mulder, Mulder-Roelfsema and Schuiteman 1990 photo fide; Thesaurus Dracularum Vol 5 Luer, Escobar and Dalstroem 1992 watercolor/drawing fide; Icones Pleurothallidinarum X Systematics of Dracula Luer 1993 drawing fide; Native Ecuadorian Orchids Vol 1 Dodson 1993 Drawing fide; Orchid Digest Vol 61 #4 1997 photo fide; Australian Orchid Review Vol 65 No 6 2000 photo; AOS Bulletin vol 78 No 10 2009 photo fide; Draculas Del Ecuador Pupulin, Merino and Medina 2009 photo ok; Flora of Ecuador No 87 225[3] Orchidaceae Dodson & Luer 2010; Orchids Masdevallia with its segregates including Dracula Zelenko 2014 photo fide; AOS Bulletin Vol 86 #6 2017 photo fide; AOS Bulletin Vol 89 #11 2020 photo fide;
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