Masdevallia delphina Luer 1978 SUBGENUS Amanda Luer 1986
Photo by © Lourens Grobler
TYPE Drawing by Carl Luer
LATE
Common Name Dolphin-Like Masdevallia -refers to the shape of the short petals making a dolphins beak]
Flower Size 1/12" [3 mm]
Found in Ecuador on the western slopes of the Andes at altitudes of 1600 to 2200 meters as a miniature sized, cool to cold epiphyte with erect, slender ramicauls enveloped basally by 2 to 3 thin, tubular sheaths and carrying an erect, coriaceous, oblanceolate, apical, leaf that is conduplicate towards the base and blooms in the late spring on an erect, loose, subsecund 8" [20 cm] long, simultaneously several flowered, racemose inflorescence arising from low on the ramicaul with the flowers opening in succesion from the bottom up.
Synonyms Masdevallia invenusta Luer 1979; Spilotantha delphina (Luer) Luer 2006
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Systematics of Masdevallia Vol 2 Luer 1986; Systematics of Masdevallia Vol 2 Luer 1986 as Masdevallia invenusta; Masdevallia's in Kleur Vol 1 P M Oversteegen, Eisses & A P Sijm 2001 photo fide; Native Ecuadorian Orchids Vol 3 Dodson 2002 drawing/photo fide; AOS Bulletin Vol 72 No 9 2003 photo fide; Icones Pleurothallidinarum XXV Systematics of Masdevallia Part Five Luer 2003 drawing fide; Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XXVIII Luer 2006 as Spilotantha delphina; Orchidaceae Masdevallia and Affiliates Dodson & Luer 2009 as Spilotantha delphina drawing fide; Masdevallia in Detail Vol 5 Sijm etal 2010 photo/drawing fide; Orchids Masdevallia with its segregates including Dracula Zelenko 2014 photo fide;
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