Masdevallia caudata Lindl. 1833 SUBGENUS Masdevallia SECTION Masdevallia SUBSECTION Caudatae Veitch 1889 Photo by © Ellis Eyre
Flower Closeup Photo by © Eric Hunt and His Orchid Website
Plant in situ Cundinamarca Colombia Photos courtesy of Jay Pfahl
EARLY 
Common Name The Long-Sepaled Masdevallia - In Colombia Colibri
Flower Size to almost 6" [to 16 cm]
Found in Peru, Ecuador, Colombia and western Venezuela as a mini-miniature sized, cool to cold growing, tufted, miniature epiphyte occuring in cloud forests at altitudes of 1800 to 3300 meters with blackish, slender, erect ramicauls enveolped basally by 2 to 3 loose, tubular sheaths and carrying a single, apical, oblanceolate, suberect, coriaceous, petiolate, rounded at the apex leaf that is cuneate below into the petiole and blooms in the late autumn through early spring with an arcuate, short, slender, to 4" to 5" [12 to 13 cm] long inflorescence arising from low on the ramicaul, has a bract above the base and a tubular floral bract with a single, fragrant, campanulate, color variable flower that is held at or below leaf height. This plant is a cool to cold growing species that likes high humidity, shade and potted in a chopped mixture of tree fernn, fir bark, perlite and sphagnum moss.
Synonyms Masdevallia shuttleworthii Rchb.f 1875
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Bonplandia Rchb.f 1854; Encyclopedia of Cultivated Orchids Hawkes 1965; Venezuelan Orchids Vol 5 Dunsterville & Garay 1966 drawing fide; Flora de Venezuela Foldats Volumen XV Part 3 1970 drawing ok; Fieldiana Biology, Vol 33, 1st Supple. to the Orchids of Peru Schweinfurth 1970; Orchids of Venezuela An Illustrated Field Guide Vol 2 Dunsterville & Garay 1979 drawing fide; AOS Bulletin Vol 53 No 9 1984 photo; Systematics of Masdevallia Vol 2 Luer 1986; Native Colombian Orchids Vol 2 COS 1991 photo fide; Venezuela; Paraiso de Orquideas Romero 1997 photo hmm; AOS Bulletin Vol 67 No 11 1998 photo; Orchids of Venezuela [An illustrated field guide] Vol. 2 Ramiro and Carnevali 2000 drawing fide; Icones Pleurothallidinarum XXIII Systematics of Masdevallia Part 4 Luer 2002 drawing fide; Orquideas Nativas del Tachira Cesar Fernandez 2003 photo fide; Australian Orchid Review Vol 69 No 3 2004 photo; AOS Bulletin Vol 74 No 2 2005 photo; AOS Bulletin Vol 74 No 7 2005 photo; Libro Rojo de Plantas De Colombia Vol 6 Primera Parte Saenz 2007 photo fide; Orchid Digest Vol 72 No 4 2008 photo; Orchid Species of Peru Zelenko Bermudez 2009 photo fide; Las Orquideas del Peru Izerskyy & Bezverhov 2011 photo fide
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