Masdevallia maxilimax ( Luer ) Luer 1989 SUBGENUS Masdevallia SECTION Masdevallia SUBSECTION Saltatrices [Rchb.f] Luer 1986
Photo by Klaus Eisses
Photo by Ron Parsons
Flower and plant Photo by Patricia Harding
TYPE Drawing by Carl Luer
Common Name The Large Limax Masdevallia [The Large Masdevallia limax]
Flower Size 3/8" [1 cm]
Found in southern Ecuador at elevations of 1800 to 2000 meters as a mini-miniature sized, cool growing epiphyte with blackish, erect, slender ramicauls enveloped basally by 2 to 3 loose, tubular sheaths carrying a single, apical, erect, coriaceous, elliptical, acute leaf that is narrowly cuneate below into the blackish petiole and blooms in the summer and fall on a slender, erect, 1.2" to 2.4" [3 to 6 cm] long, single flowered inflorescence arising from low on the ramicaul with a bract near the base and a tubular floral bract.
Very close to M mendozae but differs mostly in the fialmentous downward pointing tails, M mendoza has thicker tails all round and the dorsal sepals tail ascends, and a ventrally constriced area on M maxilimax and a tubular non-constricted ventral area on M mendozae.
Also similar to M limax but M maxilimax has larger flowers with shorter tails and a more elongate sepaline tube.
Synonyms Masdevallia limax Luer subsp. maxilimax Luer 1988
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Masdevallia's in Kleur Vol 1 P M Oversteegen, Eisses & A P Sijm 2001 photo fide; Icones Pleurothallidinarum XXIII Systematics of Masdevallia Part 4 Luer 2002 drawing fide; Native Ecuadorian Orchids Vol 3 Dodson 2002 photo fide; Orchidaceae Masdevallia and Affiliates Dodson & Luer 2009 drawing fide; Masdevallia in Detail Vol 5 Sijm etal 2010 photo/drawing fide; Orchids Masdevallia with its segregates including Dracula Zelenko 2014 photo fide; AOS Bulletin Vol 85 #2 2016 photo fide;
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