Dracula tubeana (Rchb. f.) Luer 1978 SUBGENUS Dracula SECTION Dracula SUBSECTION Dracula SERIES Dracula
Photo by © Lourens Grobler
Photo by © Patricia Harding
Drawing by © Carl Luer
Common Name The Tubed-Shapped Dracula
Flower Size 5 x 8" [12.5 x 20 cm]
Found in Pichincha province of Ecuador within cloud forests at elevations of 2000 to 2400 meters as a small sized, cold growing epiphyte with slender, erect ramicauls enveloped basally by 2 to 3 loose, tubular sheaths and carrying a single, apical, erect, thinly coriaceous, carinate, elliptical, acute, gradually narrowing below into the conduplicate, indistinct, petiolate base leaf that blooms in the winter, spring and fall on a slender, ascending to descending, arising from low on the ramicaul, 4.2 x 7.2" [11 to 18 cm] long, successively single, few flowered inflorescence with a tubular, shorter than the pedicel floral bract.
"In habit this species is large with broad leaves and a descending peduncle. The handsome flowers are distinguished by the acute, long-tailed, pubescent sepals, ivory basally with a broad, white mentum and red-purple above the middle. The snow white epichile of the lip is transverse with recurved sides and with multiple radiating veins within." Luer 1993
Synonyms Dracula tarantula (Luer) Luer 1978; Masdevallia tarantula Luer 1978; *Masdevallia tubeana Rchb. f. 1878
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Otia Botanica Hamburgensia Rchb.f 1878 as Masdevallia tubeana; Thesaurus Dracularum Vol 2 Luer, Escobar and Dalstroem 1989 watercolor/drawing fide; The Illustratred Encyclopedia of Orchids Pridgeon, 1992 photo fide Icones Pleurothallidinarum X Systematics of Dracula Luer 1993 drawing fide; Native Ecuadorian Orchids Vol 1 Dodson 1993 photo fide; Manual of Orchids Stewart 1995; Orchid Digest Vol 61 #4 1997 photo fide; Australian Orchid Review Vol 65 No 6 2000 photo; Flora's Orchids Nash & La Croix 2005 photo fide; AOS Bulletin Vol 75 No 5 2006 drawing fide; AOS Bulletin vol 78 No 10 2009 photo fide; Draculas Del Ecuador Pupulin, Merino and Medina 2009; Flora of Ecuador No 87 225[3] Orchidaceae Dodson & Luer 2010; Orchids Masdevallia with its segregates including Dracula Zelenko 2014 photo fide
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
