Masdevallia pantomima Luer & Hirtz 2001 SUBGENUS Meleagris Luer 1986
Photo by © Rodrigo Escobar
Drawing by © Carl Luer and The Swiss Orchid Foundation at the Jany Renz Herbaria Website
Common Name The Silent Mimic Masdevallia [an allusion to the posturing flower]
Flower Size .8" [2 cm]
Found in Azuay province of Ecuador without locality as a mini-miniature sized, warm to cool growing epiphyte with slender, erect ramicauls enveloped by 2 to 3 loose, tubular sheaths and carrying a single, apical, erect, thinly coriaceous, elliptical, subacute, cuneate below into the narrow, conduplicate, petiolate base leaf that blooms in the fall on a slender, suberect, to 6" [15 cm] long including the 5.2" [13 cm] long peduncle, congested, successively several flowered inflorescence with a bract below the middle, arising from low on the ramicaul and has a tubular floral bract.
"This species, with flowers large for the SUBGENUS Meleagris Luer 1986, superficially resembles the Colombian Masdevallia heteroptera, but, except for size, the details most closely resemble those of M. parvula. It is known only from one collection. Masdevallia pantomima is characterized by large flowers with the dorsal sepal ovate and only shallowly concave and with large, trans-verse spots or bars. The tail is slender and equally long. The dark purple lateral sepals are nar-rowly oblong with much shorter tails. The petals are oblong with an obtusely angled callus at the middle. The lower two-thirds of the lip is dilated, with the distal third narrowly oblong." Luer 2001
Synonyms Rodrigoa pantomima (Luer & Hirtz) Luer 2006
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; * SELBYANA Volume 22(2) 114 2001 drawing fide; Icones Pleurothallidinarum XXV Masdevallia Part 5 Luer 2003 drawing fide; Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XXVIII Luer 2006 as Rodrigoa pantomima; Orchids Masdevallia with its segregates including Dracula Zelenko 2014 photo fide;
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