Dracula inaequalis (Rchb. f.) Luer & R. Escobar 1982 SUBGENUS Dracula SECTION Dracula SUBSECTION Costatae
Flower Closeup Photos by Jay Pfahl
Another Flower Photo courtesy of David Morris and Clackamas Orchids Home Page
Plant and Flower Photo © by Milan Vagner
LATE
to EARLY
Common Name The Unequaled Dracula
Flower Size 2 1/2" [6.5 cm]
A Colombian and Ecuadorian species in rainforests and foothills from altitudes of 400? to 2200 meters as a small sized, warm to cold growing epiphyte with erect ramicauls enveloped basally by 2 to 3, loose, tubular sheaths and carrying a single, apical, erect, thinly coriaceous, carinate, narrowly elliptical, acute, gradually narrowing below into the conduplicate, indistinct petiolate base leaf that blooms in the late spring through early fall on a slender, pendulous, 7" [17.5 cm] long, successively few flowered inflorescence arising from low on the ramicaul with 2 to 3 suppressed bracts, a tubular floral bract and holding a single bell shaped flower well below the plant.
Synonyms Dracula carderi [Rchb.f]Luer 1978; Masdevallia carderi Rchb. f. 1883; *Masdevallia inequalis Rchb. f. 1874
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Encyclopedia of Cultivated Orchids Hawkes 1965 as Masdevallia carderi; Native Colombian Orchid Vol 1 COS 1990 as D carderi photo fide; Icones Pleurothallidinarum X Systematics of Dracula Luer 1993 drawing fide; Australian Orchid Review Vol 65 No 6 2000 photo; Libro Rojo de Plantas De Colombia Vol 6 Primera Parte Saenz 2007; Draculas Del Ecuador Pupulin, Merino and Medina 2009 photo fide
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