Masdevallia abbreviata Rchb. f. 1878 SUBGENUS Amanda SECTION Amandae Rchb.f 1874 Photo by © Lourens Grobler.

Side View Of Inflorescence Photo courtesy of Eric Hunt.

LATE and EARLY

Common Name The Small Masdevallia

Flower Size 2/5" [1 cm]

Found in Ecuador and Peru in subtropical, evergreen cloud forests of the western slopes of the Andes at elevations of 1500 to 2800 meters as a miniature sized, warm to cool growing epiphyte with short, terete ramicauls enveloped basally by 2 to 3 tubular sheaths and carrying a single apical, oblong-oblanceolate, retuse, coriaceous, carinate leaf with a long, channeled petiole that blooms in the late winter and early spring on an erect, slender, 12" [30 cm] long, terete, successively few to several [7] flowered inflorescence with a tubular bract near the base and conspicous, ovate, concave floral bract that is longer than the ovary.

Synonyms Spilotantha abbreviata (Rchb.f.) Luer 2006

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Systematics of Masdevallia Vol 2 Luer 1986; Icones Orchidacearum Peruviarum Plate 082 Bennett & Christenson 1993; Native Ecuadorian Orchids Vol 3 COS 2002; Icones Pleurothallidinarum XXV Systematics of Masdevallia Part Five 2005