Masdevallia aphanes Königer 1994 SUBGENUS Pygmaeia SECTION Aphanes Luer 1986

Photo by © Lourens Grobler

Common Name The Obscure Masdevallia [refers to small size of this rare species]]

Flower Size .2" [5 mm]

Found in Ecuador and Peru in cloud forests at elevations around 1700 to 2000 meters as a mini-miniature sized, cool growing epiphyte with blackish, erect suberect ramicauls enveloped basally by 2 to 3 short, tubular sheaths and carrying a single, apical, erect, coriaceous, elliptical, narrowly cuneate below into the blackish petiolate base leaf that blooms in the spring and summer on a slender, suberect, 1.2 to 2" [3 to 5 cm] long, single flowered inflorescence with an occasional extra successive flower arising from low on the ramicaul with a bract near the middle and a tubular floral bract

Synonyms Luzama aphanes (Königer) Luer 2006

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Icones Planetarum Tropicarum Series II Orchids of Peru Plate 099 Dodson & Bennett 1989 drawing fide; Icones Pleurothallidinarum XXI Systematics of Masdevallia Part 2 Luer 2000 drawing fide; Madevallia's in Kleur Vol 1 P M Oversteegen, Eisses & A P Sijm 2001 photo fide; Native Ecuadorian Orchids Vol 3 Dodson 2002 drawing fide; Icones Pleurothallidinarum XXVIII Luer 2006 Luzama aphanes; Orchidaceae Masdevallia and Affiliates Dodson & Luer 2009 as Luzama aphanes drawing fide;

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