Dracula astuta (Rchb. f.) Luer 1978 SUBGENUS Dracula SECTION Dracula SUBSECTION Dracula SERIES Parviflorae
Photo by © Pieter C. Brouwer and his Nature Photo Website
Photo by Andy's Orchids, Copyright © 2002 All rights reserved
Common Name or Meaning The Clever Dracula [Reichenbach made this allusion and it is unclear as to what he meant]
Flower Size 2" wide 8" long [5 x 20 cm]
Found in Costa Rica at elevations around 1000 to 1700 meters as a small sized, cool growing epiphyte with slender, erect ramicauls enveloped basally by 2 to 3 loose, tubular sheaths and carrying a single, apical, thinly coriaceosu, carrinate, narrowly elliptical-obovate, acute, gradually narrowing below into the conduplicate, indistinct petiolate base leaf that blooms throughout the year on a basal, slender, horizontal to descending, 8" [20 cm] long, loosee, successively 3 to 5 flowered, racemose inflorescnece arising from low on the ramicaul and carrying tubular floral bracts.
Synonyms Dracula erythrochaete subsp. astuta (Rchb.f.) Hermans 1997; Dracula gorgo (Rchb. f. ex Kraenzl.) Luer 1978; *Masdevallia astuta Rchb. f. 1886; Masdevallia erythrochaete var. astuta (Rchb. f.) Woolward 1896; Masdevallia gorgo Rchb. f. ex Kraenzl. 1925
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Repert. Sp. Nov. Regni. Veg. Beih. 19: 169. Costa Rica Schlechter 1923 as M astuta; Thesaurus Dracularum Vol 6 Luer, Escobar and Dalstroem 1993 watercolor/drawing fide; Icones Pleurothallidinarum X Systematics of Dracula Luer 1993 drawing fide; Orchid Digest Vol 61 #4 1997 as D erythrochaete vsubsp astuta photo fide; Australian Orchid Review Vol 65 No 6 2000 photo; Manual de Plantas de Costa Rica Vol 3 Hammel, Grayum, Herrera and Zamora 2003; Mille et Une Mini Orchideees Roguenant 2009 photo fide; Orchids Masdevallia with its segregates including Dracula Zelenko 2014 photo fide;
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