Masdevallia loui Luer & Dalström 2003 Masdevallia loui Luer & Dalström 2003
Photo by © Lou Jost
TYPE Drawing by © Carl Luer and The Epidendra Website
Common Name Lou's Masdevallia [Lou Jost American Orchid Enthusiast in Ecuador current]
Flower Size .4" [1 cm]
Found in Pastaza province of Ecuador in humid forests at elevations around 1400 meters as a mini-miniature sized, cool growing epiphyte with erect, slender ramicuals enveloped by 2 tubular sheaths and carrying a single, apical, erect, thickly coriaceous, narrowly elliptical, subacute to obtuse, gradually narrowing below into the petiolate base leaf that blooms in the late spring on a descending, arising from the base of the ramicaul, with a bract at the base, triquetrous, congested, .4 to 1.2" [1 to 3 cm] long, successively single flowered inflorescence with a tubular, oblique, as long to longer than the pedicel floral bract.
"One of only a few in the subsection that has a descending, triquetrous peduncle. Characterized by an unusualy small, caespitose habit and a short, strictly pendent peduncle. Superficially it resembles M zahlbruckneri. The three sepals are connate into a short, cylindrical tube beyond which the synsepal expands, with the obtuse tips terminated by very short, thick tails. A secondary mentum accompanies the lip." Luer 2003
Synonyms Alaticaulia loui (Luer & Dalström) Luer 2006
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; * Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XXV Masdevallia Part 5 Luer 2003 drawing fide; Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XXVIII Luer 2006 as Alaticaulia loui; Orchids Masdevallia with its segregates including Dracula Zelenko 2014 photo fide;
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