Masdevallia expansa Rchb. f. 1878 SUBGENUS Masdevallia SECTION Masdevallia SUBSECTION Caudatae Veitch 1889

Photo courtesy of © Lourens Grobler.

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Common Name The Wide Spread Masdevallia [refers to the sepals]

Flower Size 2" [5 cm]

Found on the eastern cordillera in Santander and Norte de Santander departments of Colombia in cloud forests at elevations of 2500 to 2700 meters as a miniature sized, cold growing epiphyte with slender, erect ramicauls enveloped basally by 2 to 3 tubular sheaths and carrying a single, apical, erect, coriaceous, elliptical, subacute to obtuse leaf that is cuneate below into the petiole and blooms in the late winter and early spring on a slender, erect, 1.2 to 1.6" [3 to 4 cm] long, single flowered inflorescence arising from low on the ramicaul with a bract above the base and a tubular floral bract holding the flower below the leaf height.

Often cited as a synonym of M caudata and it may be so, but differs in the narrower, less deeply connate lateral sepals with a shallower mentum, the lip is oblong with an apical callus.

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; *Otia Botanica Hamburgensia Rchb.f 1878; Orquideologia Vol 16 No 1 1983; Systematics of Masdevallia Vol 2 Luer 1986; Masdevallia's in Kleur Vol 1 P M Oversteegen, Eisses & A P Sijm 2001 photo fide; Icones Pleurothallidinarum XXIII Systematics of Masdevallia Part 4 Luer 2002; Libro Rojo de Plantas De Colombia Vol 6 Primera Parte Saenz 2007

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