Masdevallia bicornis Luer 1997 SUBGENUS Scabripes Luer 2000
Photo by © Lourens Grobler
Photo courtesy of Patricia Harding
Photo courtesy of © Danny Lentz, plant grown by the Atlanta Botanical Garden
TYPE Drawing by Carl Luer
Common Name The Two-Horned Masdevallia
Flower Size 1 1/16" [3 cm]
Found in southeastern Ecuador at elevations of 700 to 1000 meters as a small sized, warm growing epiphyte with short, stout, erect ramicauls that are enveloped by 2 to 3 loose, tubular sheaths carrying a single, apical, erect, thinly coriaceous, narrowly elliptic-obovate, subacute, leaf with the base narrowly cuneate into the petiole that blooms with a solitary, nutant flower sometimes followed by a second carried by a scurfy, suberect to horizontal to pendant, 4 3/4 to 9 1/2" [12 to 24 cm] long inflorescence arising from near the base of the ramicaul with 3 distant bracts and a tubular oblique floral bracts holding the flower above the leaf.
Unique to the Masdevallia as this species is densely covered with branching, scaly trichomes similar to those in Scaphosepalum and was used by Königer & J.J. Portilla to exclude this species from Masdevallia and make a monotypic genus, Portillia, Carl Luer feels that as the flowers fit into the unispecific subgenera of Scabripes, there are not enough sufficient differences to segregate it, So we keep it in Masdevallia.
Synonyms Portillia popowiana Königer & J.J. Portilla 1996
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; *Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XV Systematics of Trichosalpinx Luer 1997 drawing fide; A Treasure of Masdevallia Vol 24 Luer & Dalstroem 1999 watercolor/drawing fide; Rudolf Schlechter Die Orchideen Band 1C lieferung 42 - 43 pg 2626 - 2762 Brieger 2001 photo fide; Masdevallia's in Kleur Vol 1 P M Oversteegen, Eisses & A P Sijm 2001 photo fide; Native Ecuadorian Orchids Vol 3 Dodson 2002 photo fide; AOS Bulletin Vol 72 No 9 2003 photo fide; Icones Pleurothallidinarum XXV Systematics of Masdevallia Part Five 2003 drawing fide; Orchidaceae Masdevallia and Affiliates Dodson & Luer 2009 photo/drawing fide; Orchids Masdevallia with its segregates including Dracula Zelenko 2014 photo fide; AOS Bulletin Vol 85 #1 2016 photo fide;
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