Masdevallia cupularis Rchb. f. 1866 SUBGENUS Polyanthae SUBSECTION Polyanthae Rchb.f 1874
Photo by © Lourens Grobler
Photo by Eric Hunt and plant grown by the San Francisco Conservatory of Flowers
Photos by © Bogarin, Used under permission of Epidendra Website CR
LATE
EARLY 
Common Name The Little Cup Masdevallia [refers to the sepaline tube]
Flower Size 1" [2.5 cm]
Found in Costa Rica at elevations of 1700 to 2200 meters as a minii-miniature sized, cool to cold growing epiphyte with slender, erect ramicauls enveloped by 2 to 3 thin, tubular sheaths carrying a single, apical, erect to suberect, coriaceous, narrowly elliptic-obovate, subacute to obtuse leaf that gradually narrows below into a petiole that blooms in the late summer and early fall on a single flowered, occasionally followed by a second, slender, suberect to horizontal, 3 3/5" to 5 3/5" [9 to 14 cm] long inflorescence arising from low on the ramicaul with a tubular floral bract and holding the flower below the leaf.
Synonyms Alaticaulia cupularis (Rchb. f.) Luer 2006; Masdevallia odontochila Schlechter 1910; Masdevallia reflexa Schlechter 1923; Reichantha cupularis (Rchb.f.) Luer 2006
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Lankester's Epidendra Website CR ; *Beitr. Orchid.-K. C. Amer. 93. 1866; Repert. Sp. Nov. Regni. Veg. Beih. 19: 276. Costa Rica Schlechter 1923 as M reflexa; Systematics of Masdevallia Vol 2 Luer 1986; Orchids Travel By Air A Pictoral Safari Mulder, Mulder-Roelfsema and Schuiteman 1990 photo fide; Icones Planetarum Tropicarum plate 1547 Atwood 1993 drawing fide; Icones Pleurothallidinarum XIX Systematics of Masdevallia Part 1 Luer 2000 drawing fide; Masdevallia's in Kleur Vol 1 P M Oversteegen, Eisses & A P Sijm 2001 photo fide; Manual de Plantas de Costa Rica Vol 3 Hammel, Grayum, Herrera and Zamora 2003;Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XXVIII Luer 2006 as Alaticaulia cupularis; Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XXIX Luer 2007 as Alaticaulia cupularis; Vanishing Beauty, Native Costa Rican Orchids Vol 2 Lacaena to Pteroglossa Pupulin 2020 photo fide; Orchids Masdevallia with its segregates including Dracula Zelenko 2014 photo fide;
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