Masdevallia welischii Luer 1979 subgen. Masdevallia sect. Masdevallia subsect Coccineae Veitch 1889

Flower Color Variety Photos courtesy of © Lourens Grobler

Another Flower Photo by © Ellis Eyre

Common Name Welisch's Masdevallia [American Discoverer of species 20th cen]

Flower Size 1 14" [3 cm]

A Peruvian lithophyte found on exposed rocks on cliff faces at an altitude of 3000 meters and is a small sized, cold growing orchid with stout, erect ramicauls enveloped basally by 2 to 3 tubular sheaths carrying a single, apical, erect, thickly coriaceous, narrowly elliptical, subacute to acute leaf that gradually narrows below into the channeled petiole and blooms with an ascending to suberect, slender, 4 7/8" to 7 1/5" [12 to 18 cm] long, solitary flowered inflorescence arising from low on the ramicaul with a bract below the middle and a floral bract.

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Systematics of Madevallia Vol 2 Luer 1986; Icones Pleurothallidinarum XXV Systematics of Masdevallia Part Five 2005

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------