Masdevallia hercules Luer & Andreetta 1988 [1989] SUBGENUS Cucullatia Luer 2002 Photo by © Jay Pfahl

Flower Closeup Photo by Jay Pfahl ©

Common Name The Hercules Flower Masdevallia

Flower Size 2" [5 cm] wide

Found in the eastern slopes of the Andes of southeastern Colombia and Ecuador at elevations of 1300 to 2200 meters as a medium sized, warm to cool growing epiphyte with stout, erect ramicauls enveloped basally by 2 to 3 long, inflated tubular sheaths and carrying a single, apical, erect, thickly coriaceous, elliptical, subacute leaf that is cuneate below into the channeled petiole that blooms in the fall on an erect, stout, single flowered inflorescence arising from above the middle of the ramicaul and a bract at the base and a green, inflated, cucullate floral bract enveloping the pedicel and ovary.

Synonyms Megema hercules (Luer & Andreetta) Luer 2006

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Native Colombian Orchids Vol 6 COS 1998 photo fide; Native Ecuadorian Orchids Vol 3 Dodson 2002 photo fide; Icones Pleurothallidinarum XXV Systematics of Masdevallia Part Five 2005 drawing fide; Libro Rojo de Plantas De Colombia Vol 6 Primera Parte Saenz 2007; Orchidaceae Masdevallia and Affiliates Dodson & Luer 2009 as Megema hercules photo/drawing fide;

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