Masdevallia abbreviata Rchb. f. 1878 SUBGENUS Amanda Luer 1986
Photo by © Lourens Grobler.
Photo by © Milan Vagner.
Photo courtesy of Eric Hunt.
LATE 
and EARLY 
Common Name The Small Masdevallia
Flower Size 2/5" [1 cm]
Found in Ecuador and Peru in subtropical, evergreen cloud forests of the western slopes of the Andes at elevations of 1500 to 2800 meters as a mini-miniature sized, cool to cold growing epiphyte with short, terete ramicauls enveloped basally by 2 to 3 tubular sheaths and carrying a single apical, oblong-oblanceolate, retuse, coriaceous, carinate leaf with a long, channeled petiole that blooms in the late winter and early spring on an erect, slender, 12" [30 cm] long, terete, successively few to several [7] flowered inflorescence with a tubular bract near the base and conspicous, ovate, concave floral bract that is longer than the ovary.
Synonyms Spilotantha abbreviata (Rchb.f.) Luer 2006
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Die Orchideen Schlechter 1915; Encyclopedia of Cultivated Orchids Hawkes 1965; Systematics of Masdevallia Vol 2 Luer 1986; Icones Orchidacearum Peruviarum Plate 082 Bennett & Christenson 1993 drawing ok; Masdevallia's in Kleur Vol 1 P M Oversteegen, Eisses & A P Sijm 2001 photo fide; Orchid Digest Vol 66 #1 2002 drawing fide; Native Ecuadorian Orchids Vol 3 Dodson 2002 photo fide; Icones Pleurothallidinarum XXV Systematics of Masdevallia Part Five 2003 drawing fide; Orchidaceae Masdevallia and Affiliates Dodson & Luer 2009 as Spilotantha abbreviata drawing fide; Masdevallia in Detail Vol 5 Sijm etal 2010 photo/drawing fide; Orchids Masdevallia with its segregates including Dracula Zelenko 2014 photo fide;
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