Dracula polyphemus (Luer) Luer 1878 SUBGENUS Dracula SECTION Dracula SUBSECTION Dracula SERIES Dracula
Photo by © Manfred Schmucker, Plants grown by Akerne Orchids of Belgium
Common Name The Cyclops Dracula
Flower Size 4" x 6" [10 x 15 cm]
Found in Ecuador in cloud forest at elevations around 1400 to 2200 meters as a medium sized, cool to cold growing epiphyte from with erect, stout ramicauls enveloped basally by 2 to 3 loose, tubualar sheaths and carrying a single, apical, erect, thinly coriaceous, carinate, lightly plicate, elliptical acute, gradually narrowing below into the conduplicate, indistinct petiolate base leaf that blooms in the winter and spring on a purple, slender, horizontal to descending, 4 to 8" [10 to 20 cm] long, sparsely bracted, successively few flowered inflorescence arising from low on the ramicaul with a tubular floral bract.
Synonyms *Masdevallia polyphemus Luer 1978
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Icones Pleurothallidinarum X Systematics of Dracula Luer 1993 drawing fide; Native Ecuadorian Orchids Vol 1 Dodson 1993 photo fide; Orchid Digest Vol 61 #4 1997 photo fide; Australian Orchid Review Vol 65 No 6 2000 photo; Flora's Orchids Nash & La Croix 2005 photo fide; Draculas Del Ecuador Pupulin, Merino and Medina 2009 photo fide; Flora of Ecuador No 87 225[3] Orchidaceae Dodson & Luer 2010; Orchids Masdevallia with its segregates including Dracula Zelenko 2014 photo fide; Orchids, A Colombian Treasure Vol 1 Ortiz & Uribe 2014 drawing fide;
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