Dracula X radio-syndactyla Luer 1981 SUBGENUS Dracula SECTION Dracula SUBSECTION Dracula SERIES Parviflorae Photo courtesy of © Lourens Grobler.

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Common Name The Radiosa x Syndactyla Dracula

Flower Size 1 1/2 x 5" [3.75 x 12.5 cm]

Found in Narino Colombia in cloud forests at elevations around 1950 meters as a small sized, cool to cold growing epiphyte with erect ramicauls with 2 to 3, loose, tubular sheaths and carrying a single, apical, erect, coriaceous, carinate, elliptical-obovate, lightly plicate, acute, narrowly cuneate below into the petiolate base leaf that blooms in the fall on a more or less horizontal, 2.8 to 3.6" [7 to 9 cm] long, lax, successively few flowered inflorescence arising from low on the ramicaul, with several bracts and a tubular floral bract.

This is a natural hybrid between these 2 Colombian species, Dracula radiosa [Rchb.f]Luer and Dracula syndactyla Luer. They are both found in Ecuador and Colombia at 1850 to 2200 meters in the same area and have the same bloom season.

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Thesaurus Dracularum Vol 6 Luer, Ecobar and Dalstroem 1993 watercolor/drawing fide; Icones Pleurothallidinarum X Systematics of Dracula Luer 1993 drawing fide; Orchid Digest Vol 72 No 4 2008 photo

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