Masdevallia sanctae-fidei Kraenzl. 1921 < SUBGENUS Polyantha SECTION Alaticaules SUBSECTION Alaticaules [Krzl.] Luer 1986

Photo by © Lourens Grobler

Drawing

Drawing by Carl Luer

EARLY

Common Name The Santa Fe De Bogota' Masdevallia

Flower Size 3/4" [2 cm]

Found Tacira state of Venezuela and Cundinamarca and Santander departments of Colombia in lower montane forests at elevations of 500 to 1800 meters as a mini-miniature sized, warm to cool growing epiphyte with slender, erect ramicauls enveloped basally by 2 to 3 loose, tubular sheaths and carrying a single, apical, erect, coriaceous, narrowly obovate, subacute, gradually narrowing below into the indistinct, channeled, petiolate base leaf that blooms in the spring through early fall on a slender, arising from the base of the ramicaul and with a bract at the base, erect to suberect, triquetrous, 2.4 to 3.2" [6 to 8 cm] long, congested, successively few flowered inflorescence with tubular, imbricating, shorter than the pedicel floral bracts.

" Distinguished by the congested, few flowered raceme of successive flowers with a short sepaline tube and a broadly expanded synsepal with close tails shorter than the tail of the dorsal sepal. The basal end of the lip slopes backward to the attachment of the column foot." Luer 2000

CAUTION Does not match Luer's drawing exactly, the photo has much shorter tails [they may be reflexed] and the sepals of the synsepal are less rotund medianally

Synonyms Alaticaulia sanctae-fidei (Kraenzl.) Luer 2006; Masdevallia dispar Luer 1979

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Venezuelan Orchids Illustrated Vol 6 Dunsterville & Garay 1976 as M lata drawing fide; Orchids of Venezuela [An illustrated field guide] Vol. 2 Dunsterville and Garay 1979 as M lata not = M sancta fidei drawing fide; Native Colombian Orchids Vol 6 COS 1998 photo fide; Orchids of Venezuela [An illustrated field guide] Vol. 1 Ramiro and Carnevali 2000 drawing fide; Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XIX Masdevallia Part 1 Luer 2000 drawing fide; Masdevallia's in Kleur Vol 1 P M Oversteegen, Eisses & A P Sijm 2001 photo fide; Orquideas Nativas del Tachira Cesar Fernandez 2003 photo fide; Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XXVIII Luer 2006 as Alaticaulia sanctae-fidei; Libro Rojo de Plantas De Colombia Vol 6 Primera Parte Saenz 2007; Orchids Masdevallia with its segregates including Dracula Zelenko 2014 photo fide;

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