Masdevallia exquisita Luer & Hirtz 1993 SUBGENUS Masdevallia SECTION Masdevallia SUBSECTION Masdevallia
Photo courtesy of Eric Hunt, plant grown by Musia Stagg.
Photo courtesy of © Lourens Grobler
TYPE Drawing by Carl Luer
Common Name The Choice Masdevallia
Flower Size 2.2" [5.5 cm]
Found in Peru and Bolivia in wet montane forests at elevations of 1800 to 2000 meters as a mini-miniature sized, cool growing species with slender, erect, blackish ramicauls enveloped by 2 to 3, loose, tubular sheaths carrying a single, apical, erect, coriaceous, elliptical, subacute leaf that is narrowly cuneate below into the petiole and blooms in the summer on slender, erect, 2 2/5" [6 cm] long inflorescence arising from low on the ramicaul with a thin bract near the base and a tubular floral bract that holds its solitary flower at or just below leaf height.
Distinguished from others by it's snow white sepals with a bright crimson suffusion on the middle 1/3 to 1/2 and orange towards the base, the sepals are sparsely long-pubescent above the middle, the sepaline tails are long and slender and the deflexed acute lip has a black tip.
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI A Treasure of Masdevallia Vol 22 Luer & Dalstroem 1997 watercolor/drawing fide; AOS Bulletin Vol 68 No 4 1999 photo fide; Icones Pleurothallidinarum XXII Systematics of Masdevallia Part 3 Luer 2001 drawing fide; Masdevallia's in Kleur Vol 1 P M Oversteegen, Eisses & A P Sijm 2001 photo fide; Orchid Digest Vol 72 No 4 2008 photo fide; Orchid Species of Peru Zelenko Bermudez 2009 photo fide; Orchids Masdevallia with its segregates including Dracula Zelenko 2014 photo fide;
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