Masdevallia venusta Schltr. 1921 SUBGENUS Masdevallia SECTION Masdevallia SUBSECTION Coccineae Veitch 1889
Photos by © S Manning and The Swiss Orchid Foundation at the Jany Renz Herbaria Website
TYPE Drawing by Carl Luer
Common Name or Meaning The Beautiful Masdevallia
Flower Size
Found in northern Peru at elevations of 2400 to 2500 meters as a miniature sized, cold growing epiphyte with erect, short, ramicauls enveloped basally by a short sheath and carrying a single, apical, erect, coriaceous, elliptical-oblong, obtuse, appaently 3 veined, petiolate base leaf that blooms in the fall on a slender, erect, 5.2 to 10" [13 to 25 cm] long, single flowered inflorescence with tight floral bract and carrying the large crimson flower well above the leaves.
CAUTION This species has not been seen since the original collection in the early 1900's and as such I cannot be sure of this photo identification. Even the original type was destroyed in 1944 in Berlin Germany during WWII. So Please use caution as I have no way of verifying this determination
Similar to both M idae and M stumpflei but different enough that most likely it is a synonym neither. M venusta has a longer lip and is slightly constricted in the anterior third.
Synonyms
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Masdevallia's in Kleur Vol 1 P M Oversteegen, Eisses & A P Sijm 2001 photo fide; Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XXV Masdevallia Part 5 Luer 2003; Orchids Masdevallia with its segregates including Dracula Zelenko 2014 photo fide;
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