Dryadella summersii (L.O.Williams) Luer 1978
Photo by Christian Gegenbauer
Photo by © Lourens Grobler
LATE 
Common Name Summers' Dryadella [Co-discoverer of Species 1900's]
Flower Size .2" [5 mm]
Found in northwestern Ecuador at elevations in scrub vegetation 2600 to 3200 meters as a mini-miniature sized, cold growing epiphyte with erect ramicauls partially enveloped basally by 2 to 3 loose, tubular sheaths and carrying a single, apical erect, coriaceous, narrowly elliptical-obovate, acute to subacute, gradually narrowing below into the subpetiolate base leaf that blooms in the fall on a low on the ramicaul, .04 to .08" [1 to 2 mm] long, congested, successively single, few flowered, racemose inflorescence enveloped by a sheath and has thin imbricating floral bracts.
This species is similar to D simula but differs in the "caudate dorsal sepal, an elliptical, convex blade of the lip basically without calli and with a laterally compressed claw and a pair of sharp teeth descending from the middle of the column."
Synonyms *Masdevallia summersii L.O.Williams 1940
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Native Ecuadorian Orchids Vol 2 Dodson 2001 drawing/photo fide; Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XXVII Dryadella and Section Acronia Luer 2005; Flora of Ecuador No 87 225[3] Orchidaceae Dodson & Luer 2010 drawing fide; Orchids, A Colombian Treasure Vol 1 Ortiz & Uribe 2014 drawing/photo fide;
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