Dracula vlad-tepes Luer & R. Escobar 1981 SUBGENUS Dracula SECTION Dracula SUBSECTION Dracula SERIES Grandiflorae-Parvilabiate Luer 1993
Photo by © Lourens Grobler
Photo by © Marius Wasbauer.
TYPE Drawing by © Carl Luer
Common Name Vlad Tepes Dracula [The Real Romanian Dracula]
Flower Size 3" [7.5 cm]
Found in Santander department of Colombia on the the eastern cordillera in cloud forests at elevations around 2500 meters as a small sized, cold growing epiphyte with stout, erect ramicauls enveloped basally by 2 to 3 loose, tubular sheaths and carrying a single, apical, erect, thinly coriaceous, carinate, narrowly obovate, acute, gradually narrowing below into the conduplicate, indistinct, subpetiolate base leaf that blooms in the winter, spring and fall on a stout, sparsely bracted, horizontal to descending, 3.6" to 4.8" [9 to 12 cm] long, loose, successively single, few flowered, racemose inflorescence arising from low on the ramicaul and carrying a tubular floral bract.
This species is one of only seven Dracula species that occur on the eastern cordillera of Colombia, the other 6 are, D gerhardii, D anthracina and D orientalis as well as D. vinacea and D. diabola in Boyacá and D. psittaccina in Cundinamarca
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; * Orquideologia Vol 15 #1 Luer & Escobar 1981 photo/drawing fide; AOS Bulletin Vol 56 No 10 1987 photo fide; Thesaurus Dracularum Vol 3 Luer, Escobar and Dalstroem 1990 watercolor/drawing fide; Native Colombian Orchids Vol 1 COS 1990 photo fide; Icones Pleurothallidinarum X Systematics of Dracula Luer 1993 drawing fide; Australian Orchid Review Vol 65 No 6 2000 photo; Libro Rojo de Plantas De Colombia Vol 6 Primera Parte Saenz 2007; Orchids Masdevallia with its segregates including Dracula Zelenko 2014 photo fide; Orchids, A Colombian Treasure Vol 1 Ortiz & Uribe 2014 drawing/photo fide;
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