Masdevallia telloi Luer & Hirtz 2005 SUBGENUS Polyantha SECTION Alaticaules SUBSECTION Alaticaules [Krzl.] Luer 1986
Photo by © Alexander Hirtz
TYPE Drawing by © Carl Luer and The Swiss Orchid Foundation at the Jany Renz Herbaria Website
LATE EARLY
Common Name or Meaning Tello's Masdevallia [Ecuadorian discoverer of species Current]
Flower Size .4" [1 cm]
Found in Pastaza province of Ecuador at elevations around 700 meters as a mini-miniature sized, warm growing, cespitose epiphyte with erect, slender ramicauls enveloped basally by 2 loose, tubular sheaths and carrying a single, apical, erect, coriaceous, narrowly elliptical-obovate, subacute , gradually narrowing below into the indistinct petiolate base leaf that blooms in the late fall and early winter on a slender, , arising from low on the ramicaul, with a bract at the base erect, triquetrous, 3.6 to 4.4" [9 to 11 cm] long, congested, successively single, several to many flowered inflorescence with thin, tubular, imbricating, longer to as long as the pedicel floral bracts and holding the flower well above leaf height.
"Related to M bicolor but differs in the slender habit with a slender, proportionally much longer peduncel. The numerous flowers are produced successively in a congested raceme over a long period of time. With a yellow dorsal sepal and a purplish synsepal the flowers are similar to M bicolor. The sepaline tails however are much thicker. The lateral sepals expand immendiately beyond the junction with the dorsal sepal instead of making a concave synsepal. The petals and lip are not remarkably different except for the apex of the lip that is not verrucose." Luer 2005
Synonyms Alaticaulia telloi (Luer & Hirtz) Luer 2006
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; * Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XXVII Systematics of Dryadella Systematics of Macrophyllae-Fasciculatae Luer 2005 Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XXVII Luer 2005 drawing fide; Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XXVIII Luer 2006 as Alaticaulia telloi; Orchids Masdevallia with its segregates including Dracula Zelenko 2014 photo fide;
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