Masdevallia portillae Luer & Andreetta 1978 SUBGENUS Polyantha SECTION Alaticaules SUBSECTION Alaticaules [Krzl.] Luer 1986
Photos by © Patrick & Martine Cloes and their Pleurothallid Webpage
TYPE Drawing by Carl Luer
Common Name or Meaning Portilla's Masdevallia [Ecuadorian Nurseryman current]
Flower Size 1" [2.5 cm] wide
Found in Morona-Santiago province of southeastern Ecuador around 1000 to 1700 meters as a miniature sized, cool growing epiphyte with stout, erect ramicauls enveloped basally by 2 to 3, loose, tubular sheaths and carrying a single, apical, erect, coriaceous, elliptical, obtuse, cuneate below into the petiolate base leaf that blooms in the spring and summer on an erect, arising from low on the ramicaul, with a bract at the base, stout, triquetrous, 5.6 to 7.2" [14 to 18 cm] long, congested, successively single flowered, racemose inflorescence with imbricating, subacute, broadly conduplicate, as long to just shorter than the ovary floral bracts.
"Distinguished by the thick peduncle about as long as the leaf. The large rigid flwower is borne in a short pedicellate, congested raceme. The narrow dorsal sepal overlies the broad, non-verrucose, cymbiform synsepal which ends in a pair of short, approximate tails. The callus of the petals ends in a short, conical projection. The folds in the middle of the lip are wing-like and the epichile is densely spiculate." Luer 2000
Synonyms Alaticaulia portillae (Luer & Andreetta) Luer 2006
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XIX Masdevallia Part 1 Luer 2000 drwaing fide; Masdevallia's in Kleur Vol 1 P M Oversteegen, Eisses & A P Sijm 2001 photo fide; Native Ecuadorian Orchids Vol 3 Dodson 2002 photo fide; Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XXVIII Luer 2006 as Alaticaulia portillae; Orchidaceae Masdevallia and Affiliates Dodson & Luer 2009 as Alaticaulia portillae drawing fide;
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