Masdevallia racemosa Lindl. 1845 SUBGENUS Masdevallia SECTION Racemosae Woolward 1896

Plant ensitu as terrestro-lithophyte ion Vulcan de Purace Colombia 6/07, 11,000 feet

Another Plant ensitu Purace Colombia 6/07 with flower and seed pod.

Another Plant as epiphyte ensitu, Vulcan de Purace Colombia Photos by Jay Pfahl. ©

Another Angle Photo courtesy of Patricia Harding.

Common Name The Racemose Masdevallia [refers to the inflorescence]

Flower Size 3/4" [2 cm]

Found only in southern Colombia in very wet, subparamo to paramo on steep embankments and roadcuts, on rocks and in dirt or moss at elevations around 2800 to 3900 meters as a cold growing, small sized terrestrial with stout, ascending to erect, ramicauls enveloped basally by 2 to 3 tubular sheaths and carrying a single, apical, coriaceous, subpetillate, narrowly elliptic, subacute leaf with the base narrowly cuneate into the indistinct petiole which blooms on a loose, successively few to several flowered, 4 to 6" [10 to 15 cm] long, slender, erct, purple, racemose inflorescence arising from near the middle of the ramicaul with an infundibulbar floral bract.

Synonyms Masdevallia racemosa var. crossii Lindl. 1845

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Encyclopedia of Cultivated Orchids Hawkes 1965; Native Colombian Orchids Vol 2, COS 1991 photo fide; A Treasure of Masdevallia Vol 23 Luer & Dalstroem 1998 watercolor/drawing fide; Systematics of Masdevallia Vol 2 Luer 1986; Icones Pleurothallidinarum XXV Systematics of Masdevallia Part Five 2005 drawing fide; Libro Rojo de Plantas De Colombia Vol 6 Primera Parte Saenz 2007 photo fide;

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