Masdevallia glomerosa Luer & Andreetta 1991 SUBGENUS Masdevallia SECTION Masdevallia SUBSECTION Masdevallia
Photo courtesy of Lourens Grobler.
TYPE Drawing by Carl Luer
Common Name The Ball-Shaped Masdevallia [refers to the round flower]
Flower Size 1" [2.5 cm]
Found in Ecuador as a mini-miniature sized, cool growing epiphyte at elevations of 1500 to 2000 meters in forests with an erect, slender ramicaul enveloped basally by 2 to 3 tubular sheaths carrying a single, apical, erect, coriaceous, elliptical, subacute leaf that is cuneate below into the petiole and blooms in the summer on an erect, slender, single flowered inflorescence arising from low on the ramicaul with a bract above the base and a tubular floral bract with a subglobose, showy, orange flower held just above the leaf.
Only a few Masdevallia have small obtuse, petiolate base leaves and a relatively large, yellow to yellow-orange flower, they are M cranion, M deniseana and M medinae.
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; A Treasure of Masdevallia Vol 21 Luer & Dalstroem 1996 drawing 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; Orchidaceae Masdevallia and Affiliates Dodson & Luer 2009 drawing ok; Orchids Masdevallia with its segregates including Dracula Zelenko 2014 photo fide;
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