Masdevallia niesseniae Luer 1998 SUBGENUS Masdevallia SECTION Masdevallia SUBSECTION Coccineae Veitch 1889
Photos courtesy of Lisa Thoerle ©
TYPE Drawing by Carl Luer
Common Name Niessen's Masevallia [Andrea Niessen Colombian Orchid Nurserywoman current]
Flower Size 2" wide [5 cm]
Found in southern Colombia in cloud forests at elevations around 1500 to 1600 meters as a miniature sized, cool growing orchid with erect, channeled ramicauls enveloped basally by 2 to 3, white, loose, tubular sheaths and carrying a single, apcial, erect, coriaceous, elliptical, subacute, gradually narrowing below into the petiolate base leaf that blooms in the spring on a slender, erect, 9 1/4" [23 cm] long, single flowered inflorescence arising from above the base of the ramicaul with a bract below the middle and a thin, tubular floral bract.
"Similar but better colored than the coveted M davisii but distinguished by the coriaceous leaves thst are not as thick as many others of the subsection. The erect peduncle bears the showy flower above the leaves. From a funnel-shaped, sepaline tube the rounded dorsal sepal curves spward while the broadly expanded, longitudinally sulcate synsepal arches below. Between depreessed veins the surface is convex. The petals are white with the labellar margin callous. The lip is oblong as in other members of the subsection, but in the center there is a shallow concavity between a pair of low calli." Luer 1998
Synonyms
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; * Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XVI Systematics of Pleurothallis SUBGENUS Crocodeilanthe, Rhynchopera and Talpinaria Luer 1998 drawing fide; A Treasure of Masdevallia Vol 24 Luer & Dalstroem 1999 watercolor/drawing fide; Icones Pleurothallidinarum XXV Systematics of Masdevallia Part 5 2003 drawing fide; Libro Rojo de Plantas De Colombia Vol 6 Primera Parte Saenz 2007 photo fide; Orchids Masdevallia with its segregates including Dracula Zelenko 2014 photo fide;
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