Masdevallia virens Luer & Andreetta 1980 Photo by © Milan Vagner SUBGENUS Polyantha SECTION Alaticaules SUBSECTION Alaticaules [Krzl.] Luer 1986

var alba Photo by © Lourens Grobler

Common Name The Greenish Masdevallia

Flower Size 3/4" [2 cm]

Found in southeastern Ecuador and northeastern Peru at elevations of 1200 to 1800 meters as a miniature sized, warm to cool growing epiphyte with stout, erect ramicauls enveloped basally by 2 to 3, loose, imbricating sheaths and carrying a single, apical, erect, coriaceous, elliptic, acute, narrowly cuneate below into the shortly petiolate base leaf that blooms in the fall and winter on a slender, erect, triquetrous, 4.8 to 5.6" [12 to 14 cm] long, successively few, single flowered inflorescence arising from low on the ramicaul, with a bract near the base and white, papery, imbricating floral bracts.

Synonyms Alaticaulia virens (Luer & Andreetta) Luer 2006

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI; Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XIX Masdevalia Part 1 Luer 2000 drawing fide; Native Ecuadorian Orchids Vol 3 Dodson 2002 photo fide; Orchid Species of Peru Zelenko Bermudez 2009 photo fide; Orchidaceae Masdevallia and Affiliates Dodson & Luer 2009 as Alaticaulia virens drawing fide

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