Masdevallia delphina Luer 1978 SUBGENUS Amanda SECTION Amandae Rchb.f 1874 Photo courtesy of © Lourens Grobler

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Common Name Dolphin-Like Masdevallia -refers to the shape of the short petals making a dolphins beak]

Flower Size 1/12" [3 mm]

A miniature epiphyte that is found on the western slopes of the Ecuadorian Andes at altitudes of 1600 to 2200 meters as a miniature sized, cool growing epiphyte with erect, slender ramicauls enveloped basally by 2 to 3 thin, tubular sheaths and carrying an erect, coriaceous, oblanceolate, apical, leaf that is conduplicate towards the base and blooms in the late spring on an erect, loose, subsecund 8" [20 cm] long, simultaneously several flowered, racemose inflorescence arising from low on the ramicaul with the flowers opening in succesion from the bottom up.

Synonyms Masdevallia invenusta Luer 1979; Spilotantha delphina (Luer) Luer 2006

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Systematics of Masdevallia Vol 2 Luer 1986; Systematics of Masdevallia Vol 2 Luer 1986 as Masdevallia invenusta; Native Ecuadorian Orchids Vol 3 Dodson 2002 drawing/photo fide; AOS Bulletin Vol 72 No 9 2003 photo; Icones Pleurothallidinarum XXV Systematics of Masdevallia Part Five 2005 drawing fide; Orchidaceae Masdevallia and Affiliates Dodson & Luer 2009 as Spilotantha delphina drawing fide;

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