Dracula houtteana (Rchb. f.) Luer 1978 SUBGENUS Dracula SECTION Dracula SUBSECTION Dracula SERIES Parviflorae
Photo by © Pieter C. Brouwer and his Nature Photo Website
Photo by © Jean Claude George
Drawing by © Carl Luer
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Common Name Houtte's Dracula [Belgian Orchid Enthusiast 1800's]
Flower Size 3/4"
Found in Antioquia, Choco', Risaralda, Tolima and Cundinamarca departments of Colombia at elevations of 1320 to 2400 meters as a small to just medium sized, cold to cool growing epiphyte on thin trunked trees a foot and a half above the ground with stout erect ramicauls enveloped basally by 2 to 3 loose, tubular sheaths and carrying a single, apical, erect, thinly coriaceous, carinate, narrowly elliptic-obovate, acute, narrowly cuneate into the conduplicate base leaf that blooms in the spring and fall on a 4" [10 cm] long, slender, purple, prostrate, arising from low on the ramicaul, loose, successively 1 to 6 flowered inflorescence with a tubular, shorter than the pedicel floral bract.
"Characterized by the relatively small to medium sized, more or less whitish, color variable flowers. All forms are shortly and densely pubescent within. Externally the sepals are usually veined or suffused with purple. The usually pink lip is small. The epichile is shallowly concave with the central carina, that is more or less lightly verrucose, flanked on each side by a lesser carina about as high as the central carina, is not involute. The epichile is on the same plane as the hypochile and not deflexed as in Dracula velutina . Unfortunately, intermediate forms grade into the broader tailed Dracula psittacina , or the smaller flowered D velutina." Luer 1993
Synonyms Dracula callifera (Schltr.) Luer 1978; Dracula carderiopsis (F. Lehm. & Kraenzl.) Luer 1978; Dracula mosquerae (F. Lehm. & Kraenzl.) Luer 1978; Masdevallia callifera Schltr. 1920; Masdevallia carderi var. mosquerae Lehm. & Kränzl. 1925; Masdevallia carderiopsis F. Lehm. & Kraenzl. 1921; *Masdevallia houtteana Rchb.f. 1874; Masdevallia mosquerae F. Lehm. & Kraenzl. 1925
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Die Orchideen der Sudamerikanischen Kordillerenstaaten II Colombia Schlechter 1920 as Masdevallia callifera; Atlas des Orchidees Cultivees Constantin 1920 as Masdevallia houtteana drawing ok; Encyclopedia of Cultivated Orchids Hawkes 1965 as Masdevallia houtteana; * Selbyana Vol 2 1978; Orquideologia Vol 13 No 1 1978 as D callifera; Native Colombian Orchids Vol 1 COS 1990 photo fide; Thesaurus Dracularum Vol 6 Luer, Escobar and Dalstroem 1993 watercolor/drawing fide; Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XXIV Luer 2002 drawing fide; Native Colombian Orchids Vol 4 COS 1994 photo close; Orchid Digest Vol 61 #4 1997 photo fide; Libro Rojo de Plantas De Colombia Vol 6 Primera Parte Saenz 2007; Orchids Masdevallia with its segregates including Dracula Zelenko 2014 photo fide; Orquideas del Valle de Aburra Medellin Colombia COS 2014 photo fide; Orchids, A Colombian Treasure Vol 1 Ortiz & Uribe 2014 drawing/photo fide;
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