Masdevallia hydrae Luer 1980 SUBGENUS Amanda Luer 1986
Photo courtesy of © Orchid Species Preservation Foundation
TYPE Drawing by Carl Luer
Common Name or Meaning The Hydra Masdevallia [Refers to the flowers resembling a polyp]
Flower Size .2" [5 mm]
Found in Ecuador on the western slopes of the Andes in cloud forests at elevations of 2000 to 2800 meters as a mini-miniature sized, cold growing epiphyte with slender, erect ramicauls enveloped basally by 2 to 3 tubular sheaths and carrying a single, apical, erect, coriaceous, narrowly elliptc-obovate, subacute, gradually narrowing below into the slender, petiolate base leaf that blooms in the spring and summer on a slender, erect, [12 to 18 cm] long, loose, simultaneously several flowered inflorescence arising from low on the ramicaul with 2 distant bracts.
Synonyms Spilotantha hydrae (Luer) Luer 2006
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;
* Phytologia 46: 351 Luer 1980;
Icones Orchidacearum Peruviarum Plate 294 Bennett & Christenson 1995 drawing fide;
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;
Icones Pleurothallidinarum XXV Systematics of Masdevallia Part 5 Luer 2003 drawing fide;
Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XXVIII Luer 2006 as Spilotantha hydrae;
Orchidaceae Masdevallia and Affiliates Dodson & Luer 2009 as Spilotantha hydrae drawing fide;
Orchids Masdevallia with its segregates including Dracula Zelenko 2014 photo fide;
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