Pleurothallis masdevalliopsis Luer 1979 SECTION MasdevalliantheTYPE for the SUBGENUS
TYPE Drawing by © Carl Luer
Common Name or Meaning The Masdevallia-Like Pleurothallis
Flower Size .8" [2 cm]
Found in Loja province of Ecuador in scrub cloud forests at elevations around 2500 meters as a mini-miniature sized, cold growing, caespitose epiphyte with stout, erect ramicauls enveloped by 2 tubular sheaths and carrying a single, apical, erect, thickly coriaceous, elliptical-linear, narrowly obtuse, narrowing below into the subpetiolate base leaf that blooms in the summer on an erect, arising from the ramicaul below the apex, slender, .6 to .8" [1.5 to 2 cm] long, single flowered inflorescence with a much shorter than the pedicel floral bract.
CAUTION All photos that I can find on the net marked Pleurothallis masdevalliopsis are actually Pleurothallis longiserpens from Peru. The lip apex of P masdevalliopsis is loosely and sparsely fringed and the base of the lip is deeply concave and accomodates a finger like extension of the tip of the column foot. There are also a pair of calli below the middle of the lip which is cleft in between. We need photos of the side of the flower showing the lip detail. P masdevalliopsis has a broadly falcate side lobe of the lip and P longiserpens has an ovate side lobe. The vegetative parts of P masdevalliopsis are caesitose [without a rhizome], and have a subpetiolate base to the narrowly obtuse leaf. P longiserpens has a rhizome with .08 to .2" [2 to 5 mmm] between each ramicaul or repent growth pattern.
Synonyms Andinia masdevalliopsis (Luer) Karremans & Mark Wilson 2017; Masdevalliantha masdevalliopsis (Luer) Szlac & Marg. 2001
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;
* Phytologia 44: 170 Luer 1979
Icones Pleurothallidinarum Systematics of Pleurothallis Vol 3 Luer 1986;
Icones Pleurothallidinarum Systematics of Pleurothallis Vol 3 Luer 1986 drawing fide; Polish Bot. J. 46: 117 Szlach & Marg 2001 as Masdevalliantha masdevalliopsis;
Native Ecuadorian Orchids Vol 4 Dodson drawing fide;
Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XXVIII A Reconsideration of Masdevallia Systematics of Specklinia Luer 2006 as Masdevalliantha masdevalliopsis;