Masdevallia tonsijmii (Luer) J.M.H.Shaw 2014 SUBGENUS Amanda Luer 1986

TYPE Drawing of Spilotantha tonsijmii by Carl Luer

Common Name or Meaning Ton Sijm's Masdevallia [Dutch collector of the type current]

Flower Size .2 x .8" [.5 x 2 cm]

Found in Loja province of Ecuador without locational data as a mini-miniature sized, presumably cold growing caespitose epiphyte with slender, erect blackish ramicauls enveloped by a loose tubular sheath and carrying a single, erect, coriaceous, narrowly elliptical, subacute, cuneate below into the long-petiolate base leaf that blooms on an erect, slender peduncle 2.8" [7 cm] long, with a bract near the middle from near the base of the ramicaul, rachis 1.4" [3.5 cm] long, simultaneously 3 to 5 flowered inflorescence with oblique, acute , almost as long as the pedicel and ovary and carrying flowers with light green sparsely marked with dark purple, glabrous sepals, white, transluscent petals and a yellow flecked with dark purple lip.

"The species is very similar to Masdevallia melanopus but M tonsijmii is distinguished by the proportionally longer sepaline tube that is constricted at the orifice at the bases of the thick, terete tails. The onblong petals are basically similar with the minutely denticulate margins and a triangular tip at the truncate apex, and the marginal folds of the narrowly ovate lip overlap the middle third." Luer 2009

Synonyms

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Icones Pleurothallidinarum XXX Luer 2009 as Spilotantha tonsijmii Drawing fide;

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