Masdevallia setacea Luer & Malo 1978 SUBGENUS Masdevallia SECTION Masdevallia SUBSECTION Caudatae Veitch 1889
Photo courtesy of Eric Hunt
Photo courtesy of Lourens Grobler
TYPE Drawing by Carl Luer
and EARLY
Common Name The Bristly Masdevallia
Flower Size 3/4" wide by 4.6" [2 x 12 cm]
Found in Peru, Ecuador and Colombia from the cloud forests and wet montane forests of the Andes at 1400 to 2400 meters as a mini-miniature sized, caespitose, cool to cold growing, epiphyte with short, inconspicuous, channeled, black ramicauls enveloped basally by 2 to 3 loose tubular sheaths with a single, apical, elliptic, erect, coriaceous, attenuate to the channeled black petiole, mid-vein carinate, coriaceous leaf with a slightly tridenticulate apex that blooms in the summer and early fall on a large solitary flower on a, slender, 4" [10cm] long, erect inflorescence arising from low on the ramicaul with a bract near the base and a tubular floral bract holding the single flower way above the leaves.
The very long, subparellel tails on the sepals, a long antrose lobe on the inferior margins of the bidentate petals and the oblong-elliptic labellum separate this species from others. It is a very color variable plant and can range from pale yellow to lilac.
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Systematics of Masdevallia Vol 2 Luer 1986; Icones Orchidacearum Peruviarum Plate 302 Bennett & Christenson 1995 drawing fide; Orchid Digest Vol 60 #3 1996 photo fide; Masdevallia's in Kleur Vol 1 P M Oversteegen, Eisses & A P Sijm 2001 photo fide; Icones Pleurothallidinarum XXIII Systematics of Masdevallia Part 4 Luer 2002 drawing fide; Native Ecuadorian Orchids Vol 3 Dodson 2002 photo fide; AOS Bulletin Vol 75 No 5 2006 photo fide; Orchid Species of Peru Zelenko Bermudez 2009 photo fide; Orchidaceae Masdevallia and Affiliates Dodson & Luer 2009 drawing fide; Orchids Masdevallia with its segregates including Dracula Zelenko 2014 photo fide;
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