Masdevallia gnoma H.R.Sweet 1978 SUBGENUS Masdevallia SECTION Triotosiphon ( Schltr. ) H.R.Sweet 1978
PHOTO by © Ron Parsons
PHOTO by © Ecuagenera and their Ecuadorian Orchid Website
Common Name The Gnome Like Masdevallia
Flower Size 2/5" [1 cm]
Found in Ecuador on the eastern slopes of the Andes at elevations of 1000 to 1500 meters, as a mini-miniature sized, warm to cool growing epiphyte with slender, blackish, erect, ramicauls enveloped basally by 2 to 3 loose, tubular sheaths and carrying a single, apical, erect, thickly coriaceous, narrowly obovate-linear, obtuse to subacute leaf that is narrowly cuneate below into the indistinct, petiolate base that blooms in the winter and spring on a slender, erect to suberect, , 6 to 10" [15 to 25 cm] long, single flowered inflorescence arising from low on the ramicaul.
This species and the variable flowered M bangii are very similar and in fact without removing the sepals to reveal the petals and column can they be identified for sure even though M gnoma does not have the humped rear, some variable M bangii do not either.
Synonyms Triotosiphon gnoma (H.R.Sweet) Luer 2006
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Icones Pleurothallidinarum XXV Systematics of Masdevallia Part Five Luer 2003 drawing ok; Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XXVIII Luer 2006 as Triotosiphon gnoma; Orchidaceae Masdevallia and Affiliates Dodson & Luer 2009 as Triotosiphon gnoma drawing fide; Orchids Masdevallia with its segregates including Dracula Zelenko 2014 photo fide;
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