Masdevallia iris Luer & R. Escobar 1982 SUBGENUS Masdevallia SECTION Masdevallia SUBSECTION Caudatae Veitch 1889
Photo by © Eric Hunt
TYPE Drawing by Carl Luer
Common Name The Rainbow-Colored Masdevallia
Flower Size 1.2" [3 cm]
Endemic to Colombia and Venezuela in cloud forests at elevations of 1200 to 2250 meters as a mini-miniature sized, cool to cold growing epiphyte with slender, erect, ramicauls enveloped basally by 2 to 3 loose, tubular sheaths carrying a single, apical, erect, coriaceous, elliptical, obtuse to subacute leaf that is cuneate below into the channeled petiole that blooms in the spring on an erect, slender, 2 to 3" [5 to 7.5 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 leaf height.
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Systematics of Masdevallia Vol 2 Luer 1986; Native Colombian Orchids Vol 6 COS 1998 photo fide; Icones Pleurothallidinarum XXIII Systematics of Masdevallia Part 4 Luer 2002 drawing fide; Orchids Masdevallia with its segregates including Dracula Zelenko 2014 photo fide;
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