Masdevallia veitchiana Rchb.f 1868 SUBGENUS Masdevallia SECTION Masdevallia SUBSECTION Coccineae Veitch 1889
Photos by © Jay Pfahl
Photo by © Eric Hunt
Photo courtesy of Andy's Orchids Copyright © 2002 All rights reserved.
Photo by © Lourens Grobler
and EARLY
Common Name Veitch's Masdevallia [English Nurseryman 1800's]- In Peru Gallo-Gallo [means rooster and refers to the rooster-like red comb, crest and wattles of the flower] - The Incas call it Wajanki
Flower Size to 8" [up to 20 cm]
Found around Macchu Picchu in Cusco department of Peru on steep rocky slopes covered with grasses and shrubs in full sun but with the leaves protected by the grass occuring at elevations of 2000 to 4000 meters as a small sized, cold growing terrestrial, sometimes lithophytic or rarely epiphytic, tufted species with short ramicauls enveloped by a series of tubular bracts with an erect, linear-oblanceolate, tapered to the channeled petiolate base, acute, thick leaf that blooms in the spring and early summer with an erect, 12 to 19" [39 to 44 cm] long, single flowered inflorescence carrying 2 distant, tubular bracts and a single inflated tubular, ovate floral bract with the long-lasting flowers held way above the leaves.
To quote Dale Borders. "The unequal color distribution apparent in Masdevallia veitchiana is accorded to the presence of minute purple hairs on the sepals which lend a prismatic visual aspect to the flower. Viewed head-on with the light behind you, the color is symetrical."
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Die Orchideen Schlechter 1915; Atlas des Orchidees Cultivees Constantin 1920 drawing fide; AOS Bulletin Vol 27 No 7 1958 drawing fide; Orchid Digest Vol 24 #5 1960 photo fide; AOS Bulletin Vol 31 No 4 1962 photo fide; Encyclopedia of Cultivated Orchids Hawkes 1965; Die Orchideen 3 Auflage Bd 1 Sonderabdruck aus Schlechter Lieferung 7 385 - 448 Brieger, Maatsch and Senghas 1975; AOS Bulletin Vol 52 No 3 1983 photo fide; AOS Bulletin Vol 53 No 9 1984 photo fide; Systematics of Masdevallia Vol 2 Luer 1986; AOS Bulletin Vol 57 No 1 1988 photo fide; AOS Bulletin Vol 61 No 7 1992 photo fide; The Manual Of Cultivated Orchid Species Bechtel, Cribb & Launert 1992 photo fide; AOS Bulletin Vol 62 No 4 1993 drawing fide; AOS Bulletin Vol 63 No 3 1994 photo fide; AOS Bulletin Vol 63 # 8 1994 photo fide; Orchid Digest Vol 58 No 4 1994 photo fide; Icones Orchidacearum Peruviarum Plate 305 Bennett & Christenson 1995 drawing fide; Orchid Digest Vol 59 No 4 1995 photo fide; Orchid Digest Vol 60 #3 1996 photo fide; Orchid Digest Vol 61 #1 1997 photo fide; AOS Bulletin Vol 68 No 8 1999 photo fide; Orchid Australia Vol 12 No 4 2000 photo; AOS Bulletin Vol 69 No 12 2000 photo fide; AOS Bulletin Vol 70 No 11 2001 drawing fide; Masdevallia's in Kleur Vol 1 P M Oversteegen, Eisses & A P Sijm 2001 photo fide; AOS Bulletin Vol 72 No 11 2003 photo fide; Icones Pleurothallidinarum XXV Systematics of Masdevallia Part Five 2003 drawing fide; AOS Bulletin Vol 75 No 2 2006 photo fide; AOS Bulletin Vol 77 No 2 2008 drawing fide; AOS Bulletin Vol 77 No 4 2008 photo fide; AOS Bulletin Vol 77 No 10 2008 photo fide; Orchid Digest Vol 72 No 4 2008 photo; Orchid Species of Peru Zelenko Bermudez 2009 photo fide; AOS Bulletin Vol 79 #9 2010 photo fide; Orquideas del Peru Freuler 2010 photo fide; AOS Bulletin Vol 80 #3 2011 photo fide; AOS Bulletin Vol 80 #4 2011 photo fide; Orchids Masdevallia with its segregates including Dracula Zelenko 2014 photo fide; AOS Bulletin Vol 85 #2 2016 photo fide; AOS Bulletin Vol 86 # 7 2017 photo fide; Orchid Digest Vol 88 #4 2019 photo fide; AOS Bulletin Vol 88 #11 2019 photo fide;
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