Masdevallia minuta Lindley 1843 SUBGENUS Masdevallia SECTION Minutae Rchb.f Ex Woolw. 1896

Photo by Dale and Deni Borders

Plant and Flowers

Photo by Charles Marden Fitch

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Common Name The Tiny Masdevallia

Flower Size .4" [1 cm]

Found in Venezuela, Surinam, Guyana, French Guiana, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia in the foothill forests at elevations of 220 to 1500 meters as a mini-miniature sized, hot to cool growing terrestrial or epiphyte with slender, erect, ramicauls enveloped basally by 2 to 3 tubular sheaths and carrying a single, apcial, erect, coriaceous, narrowly obovate, subacute leaf that gradually narrows below into an indistinct petiolate base that blooms in the spring, summer and fall on a slender, erect, filiform, 6" to 2'[15 to 60 cm] long, single flowered inflorescence arising from low on the ramicaul, a bract below the middle and a floral bract carrying the single flower held way above the leaves.

Synonyms Acinopetala minuta (Lindl.) Luer 2006; Masdevallia surinamensis Focke 1851

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Venezuelan Orchids Vol 4 Dunsterville & Garay 1966 drawing not see M kyphonantha; AOS Bulletin Vol 36 #9 1967; Flora de Venezuela Foldats Volumen XV Part 3 1970 drawing not see M kyphonantha; Orchidaceae Brasilense Band 1 Pabst & Dungs 1975 drawing fide; AOS Bulletin Vol 49 No 9 1980 photo fide; Icones Planetarum Tropicarum plate 545 Dodson 1982 drawing fide; AOS Bulletin Vol 55 No 4 1986 photo; Icones Pleurothallidinarum Systematics of Masdevallia Vol 2 Luer 1986 drawing fide; The Orchids of Surinam Werkhoven 1986 photo fide; AOS Bulletin Vol 57 #2 1988 photo fide; Icones Pleurothallidinarum XXII Systematics of Masdevallia Part 3 Luer 2001 drawing fide; Masdevallia's in Kleur Vol 1 P M Oversteegen, Eisses & A P Sijm 2001 photo fide; Native Ecuadorian Orchids Vol 3 Dodson 2002 photo ok; Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XXVIII Luer 2006 as Acinopetala minuta; Libro Rojo de Plantas De Colombia Vol 6 Primera Parte Saenz 2007; Orchid Species of Peru Zelenko Bermudez 2009 photo fide; Orchidaceae Masdevallia and Affiliates Dodson & Luer 2009 as Acinopetala minuta drawing fide; Mille et Une Mini Orchideees Roguenant 2009 photo fide; Orchids Masdevallia with its segregates including Dracula Zelenko 2014 photo fide;

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