Masdevallia phoenix Luer 1978 SUBGENUS Polyantha SECTION Alaticaules SUBSECTION Alaticaules [Krzl.] Luer 1986
Photo by © John Varigos
Photo courtesy of Carlos Hajek
TYPE Drawing by Carl Luer
to EARLY
Common Name The Phoenix Masdevallia [named for the famed mythological bird]
Flower Size 1" [2.5 cm]
Found in Ecuador and Peru in wet montane forests at elevations of 1000 to 1500 meters as a small sized cool growing epiphyte with stout, erect ramicauls enveloped by 2 to 3 loose, tubular sheaths carrying a single, apical, erect, thickly coriaceous, elliptical, subacute leaf with the base cuneate into the channeled petiole where in nature it blooms in the winter and early spring on a congested, erect, triquetrous, 6 to 12" [15 to 30 cm] long, successively several flowered, racemose, inflorescence arising from the base of the ramicaul with a basal bract and thin imbricating floral bratcs with flowers that never really open fully held above the leaf.
Synonyms Alaticaulia phoenix (Luer) Luer 2006
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Systematics of Masdevallia Vol 2 Luer 1986; Icones Orchidacearum Peruviarum Plate 288 Bennett & Christenson 1995; 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; Icones Pleurothallidinarum XXV Systematics of Masdevallia Part Five Luer 2003; Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XXVIII Luer 2006 as Alaticaulia phoenix; Orquideas del Peru Freuler 2010 photo fide; Orchids Masdevallia with its segregates including Dracula Zelenko 2014 photo fide;
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