Masdevallia sentinella Luer & V.N.M.Rao 2011 SUBGENUS Masdevallia SECTION Masdevallia SUBSECTION Oscillantes Luer 1986

TYPE Drawing by © Carl Luer

LATE EARLY

Common Name The Sentry Masdevallia [An allusion to the stately, alert appearance of the flower]

Flower Size 1.2" [3 cm]

Found in Ecuador without locational data as a mini-miniature sized, caespitose epiphyte with slender, erect ramicauls enveloped by a close, tubular sheath and another at the base and carrying a single, apical, erect, coriaceous, elliptical, subacute to obtuse, narrowly cuneate below into the petiolate base leaf that blooms in the late winter and early spring on an erect, arising from low on the ramicaul, longer than the leaf, peduncle 2.6" [6.5 cm] long, with a sheath above the base, single flowered inflorescnece with shorter than the ovary floral bracts and carrying yellow flowers diffusely and intensely dotted with red.

"Distinguished from M dalesandroi by a longer peduncle that bears the flower above the tips of the leaves and the flower differs by an erect, oblong, longitudinally shallow concave dorsal sepal and oblong lateral sepals with revolute sides descending from the dorsal sepal 180 degrees. The petals and lip vary only by minor differences, such as the broadly rounded, lobe-like margins of the lip." Luer 2011

Synonyms

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;

* Harvard Papers in Botany Vol 16 No 2: 340 Luer, Thoerle and Werner 2011 drawing fide;

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