Dracula nycterina (Rchb.f.) Luer 1978 SUBGENUS Dracula SECTION Dracula SUBSECTION Costatae Photo by Jay Pfahl ©

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Common Name The Bat-Like Dracula

Flower Size 1 1/2" x 6" [3.75 x 15 cm]

A small sized, warm to cool growing Colombian, epiphytic species that is found in cloud forests at elevations of 1200 to 2000 meters with erect, stout ramicauls enveloped basally by 2 to 3 loose, tubular sheatsh and carrying a single, apical, erect, thinly coriaceous, carinate, narrowly elliptical, acute, gradually narrowing below into the conduplicate, indistinct, subpetiolate base leaf that blooms in the spring and fall on a slender, purple, subverrucose, horizontal to descending, 1.6" to 3.2" [4 to 8 cm] long, successively few flowered inflorescence arising from low on the ramicaul and carryiong a few bracts and a single tubular floral bract..

Synonyms MasdevaIIia chimaera Linden & Andd. 1873 non Rchb.f ; *Masdevallia nycterina Rchb. f. 1873

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Encyclopedia of Cultivated Orchids Hawkes 1965 as Masdevallia nycterina; AOS Bulletin Vol 48 No 7 1979 photo; Thesaurus Dracularum Vol 3 Luer, Ecobar and Dalstroem 1990 watercolor/drawing fide; Icones Pleurothallidinarum X Systematics of Dracula Luer 1993 drawing fide; Native Colombian Orchids Vol 5 COS 1994 photo fide; Libro Rojo de Plantas De Colombia Vol 6 Primera Parte Saenz 2007 photo fide;

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