Masdevallia rafaeliana Luer 1979 SUBGENUS Amanda SECTION Amandae Rchb.f 1874

Plant ensitu in Costa Rica Photo by © Walter Schug and His MesoAmerican Orchid Page

Flower Closeup Photo by © Daniel Jimenez

Common Name Rafael's Masdevallia [Sr Rodriguez Cabballero Orchid Illustrator current]

Flower Size .7" to .9" [1.7 to 2.3 cm]

Found in Costa Rica and Panama in wet montane and cloud forests at elevations of 1500 to 3000 meters as a mini-miniature sized, cool to cold growing epiphyte with somewhat stout, ramicauls enveloped basally by 2 to 3, loose tubular sheaths and carying a single, apical, erect, coriaceous, narrowly elliptical-oblong, subacute to obtuse, gradually narrowing below into the indistinct, sulcate, subpetiolate base leaf that blooms in the spring on a slender, suberect, 5 to 8" [12.5 to 20 cm] long, simultaneously few [3 to 8] flowered, slightly flexuous inflorescence arising from low on the ramicaul with 2 to 3 distant bracts and inflated, acute floral bracts,

Synonyms Spilotantha rafaeliana (Luer) Luer 2006

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Lankester's Epidendra Website CR ; *Selbyana 5(2): 149. 1979; Icones Planetarum Tropicarum plate 1454 Mora & Atwood 1992 drawing fide; Icones Planetarum Tropicarum plate 1454a Mora & Atwood 1993 drawing fide; Icones Pleurothallidinarum XXV Systematics of Masdevallia part 5 Luer 2003 drawing fide; AOS Bulletin Vol 75 No 3 2006 drawing; Orchids of Costa Rica Vol 1 Morales 2009 photo fide;

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