Masdevallia marginella Rchb.f. 1883 SUBGENUS Masdevallia SECTION Reichenbachianae Woolw. 1896

Photo by Daniel Jimenez ©

Common Name The Little Margin Masdevallia [maybe refers to the toothed margin at the lip's apex]

Flower Size 1 1/2" [3.75 cm]

Found in Costa Rica at elevations around 1800 meters in cloud forests as a mini-miniature sized, cool growing epiphyte with erect, stout ramicauls enveloped basally by 2 to 3, loose, tubular sheaths and carrying a single, apical, erect, coricaceous, elliptical, obtuse, basally cuneate into the petiolate base leaf that blooms in the spring on a sublax, slender, suberect, 2.2" to 3.6" [5.5 to 9 cm] long, occasionally one, simultaneously 2 flowered, racemose inflorescence arising from low on the ramicaul, with a bract below the middle and thin, tubular floral bracts.

Synonyms Masdevallia costaricensis Rolfe 1890; Reichantha marginella (Rchb.f.) Luer 2006

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI Lankester's Epidendra Website CR ; Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XXI Systematics of Masdevallia Part 2 Luer 2000 drawing fide; Masdevallia's in Kleur Vol 1 P M Oversteegen, Eisses & A P Sijm 2001 photo fide; Manual de Plantas de Costa Rica Vol 3 Hammel, Grayum, Herrera and Zamora 2003; Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XXVIII Luer 2006 as Reichantha marginella; Orchids Masdevallia with its segregates including Dracula Zelenko 2014 photo fide; Vanishing Beauty, Native Costa Rican Orchids Vol 2 Lacaena to Pteroglossa Pupulin 2020 photo fide

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