Masdevallia ortalis Luer 1978 SUBGENUS Masdevallia SECTION Masdevallia SUBSECTION Oscillantes Luer 1986
Photo by © Klaus Eisses
Photo by © Ken Blackburn and his Orchid Files Website
TYPE Drawing by Carl Luer
Common Name The Hungry Chick Masdevallia [An allusion to the flowers resemblance to]
Flower Size .8" [2 cm]
Found in Ecuador? and Peru at elevations around 2000 meters as a mini-miniature sized, cool to cold growing epiphyte with slender, erect, blackish ramicauls enveloped basally by 2 to 3 tubular sheaths and carrying a single, apical, erect, coriaceous, dark green, mottled purple beneath, elliptical, subacute, cuneate below into the slender, blackish petiolate base leaf that blooms in the fall on a slender, suberect, [3 to 4 cm] long, single flowered inflorescence arising from low on the ramicaul with a bract near the base and tubular floral bracts..
Very similar to M nikoleana but differs in the tridentate tips of the petals, M nikoleana has acute tips, M ortalis also has a longer inflorescence with cupped flowers and purple mottled leaves.
Synonyms Masdevallia rodolfoi subsp. ortalis (Luer) 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 Vol XXIII Part 4 Masdevallia Luer 2002 drawing fide; Orchids Masdevallia with its segregates including Dracula Zelenko 2014 photo fide;
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