Dryadella simula (Rchb. f.) Luer 1978

Photo by © Großräschener Orchids Website

Full shade ColdSpring

Common Name The Pug Nosed Dryadella [refers to the appearance of the flower]

Flower Size 1/2" [1.5 cm]

Found in Colombia, Ecuador and Peru in the lower cloud forests with a pronounced dry season in the summer and fall at 2000 to 3100 meters in elevation as a mini-miniature sized, cold growing, epiphytic herb without pseudobulbs that has terete ramicauls enveloped by close, tubular, scarious sheaths that are soon evanescent carrying a single, apical, narrowly linear lanceolate, obtuse, minutely tridentate, gradually tapering to the conduplicate, channeled base leaf with an abscission layer and an annulus from which arises a short to 3/4" [2 cm], few [3 to 4] flowered inflorescence that carries a single successively opening flower at a time held at mid-leaf height all occuring in the spring.

Synonyms Dryadella popayanensis (F.Lehm. & Kraenzl.) Luer 1978; Masdevallia popayanensis F.Lehm. & Kraenzl. 1921 ; *Masdevallia simula Rchb. f. 1875

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Die Orchideen Schlechter 1915 as Masdevallia simula; Atlas des Orchidees Cultivees Constantin 1920 as Masdevallia simula drawing ok; Repert. Speci. nova. regni vergetabilis Band VI, II Colombia 1920 as Masdevallia simula; The Orchids of Panama L.O. Williams & P Allen 1946 as Masdevallia simula drawing ok; Iconografia de Orchidaceae Do Brasil Hoehne 1949 as Masdevallia simula drawing fide; Encyclopedia of Cultivated Orchids Hawkes 1965 as Masdevallia simula photo good; Fieldiana Biology, Vol 33, 1st Supple. to the Orchids of Peru Schweinfurth 1970 as Masdevallia simula; Orchidaceae Brasilenses Band 1 Pabst & Dungs 1975 as Masdevallia simula drawing good; Las Orquedias de El Salvador Vol 3 Hamer 1983 drawing good; Icones Planetarum Tropicarum Plate 1014 Dodson 1984 drawing fide; Selbyana Vol 10 Orchids of Central America Hamer 1988 drawing good; The Manual Of Cultivated Orchid Species Bechtel, Cribb & Laurent 1992 photo fide; Icones Orchidacearum Peruviarum Plate 228 Bennett & Christenson 1995 fide; Native Colombian Orchids Vol 1 COS 1990 photo good; Rudolf Schlechter Die Orchideen Band 1C lieferung 42 - 43 pg 2626 - 2762 Brieger 2001; Native Ecuadorian Orchids Vol 2 Dodson 2001 drawing fide; Icones Pleurothallidinarum XXVII Systematics of Dryadella and Acronia Section Macrophyllae-Fasciculatae Luer 2005 drawing good; Genera Orchidacearum Vol 4 part 1 Pridgeon, Cribb, Chase & Rasmussen 2005 photo good; Orchid Species of Peru Zelenko Bermudez 2009 photo fide; Flora of Ecuador No 87 225[3] Orchidaceae Dodson & Luer 2010 drawing fide; Orquideas del Valle de Aburra Medellin Colombia COS 2014 photo fide; Orchids, A Colombian Treasure Vol 1 Ortiz & Uribe 2014 drawing/photo fide; AOS Bulletin Vol 86 #9 2017 photo ok; Orchid Genera and Species in Guatemala Archila, Szlachchetko, Chiron, Lipinska, Mystkowska and Bertolini 2018 photo fide

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------