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(Last Modified On 11/6/2013)
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Species
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Masdevallia rubeola Luer & Vasquez
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Note
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TYPE: Bolivia. La Paz: Prov. of Nor Yungas, epiphytic in forest north of Caranavi, 1,550 m, collected 26 Jan. 1988 by R. Vasquez, C. Luer, et al., flowered in cultivation by P. and A. Jesup in Bristol, Connecticut, Aug. 1988, C. Luer 15265 (holotype, MO).
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Distribution
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Bolivia
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Description
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Plant medium in size, epiphytic, caespitose; roots slender. Ramicauls blackish, erect, slender, 0.5-1.5 cm long, enclosed by 2-3 tubular sheaths. Leaf erect, coriaceous, dark green, mottled with black beneath, 5-9 cm long including the petiole 2-3 cm long, the blade elliptical-obovate, subacute to acute, 1.5-2 cm wide, cuneate below into the blackish petiole. Inflorescence a single, ?downward-facing flower, borne by a slender, suberect to subhorizontal peduncle 3-4 cm long, with a bract above the base, from low on the ramicaul; floral bract tubular, 6 mm long; pedicel 11 mm long; ovary 6 mm long; sepals yellow, diffusely dotted with red-brown, gla- brous, the dorsal sepal broadly ovate to suborbicular, concave, 13 mm long, 11 mm wide, connate to the lateral sepals for 3.5 mm to form a shallow, gaping sepaline cup, the apex rounded, abruptly contracted into an acutely reflexed tail 20 mm long, the lateral sepals suborbicular, oblique, 14 mm long, connate 8 mm to create a transverse lamina 20 mm wide, the apices rounded, abruptly contracted into de- flexed tails 15 mm long; petals yellow, obliquely oblong-obovate, 2 mm long, 1 mm wide, the apex obtuse, obscurely bilobed, the labellar margin prom- inently and broadly dilated above the middle, with a minute tooth above the base; lip yellow, dotted with brown, trilobed, 3 mm long, 1.5 mm wide across the middle lobes, narrowed in the distal third with the obtuse apex callous and acutely revolute, the lateral lobes thin, obtuse, expanded at the middle, the basal third narrow, thickened, convex, concave beneath, immovably attached to the column-foot; column semiterete, 3.5 mm long, the foot 1 mm long.
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Note
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Etymology. From the Latin rubeola, "measles," in allusion to the multiple red spots on the sepals. This species of subsection Oscillantes is most closely allied to the Peruvian M. ortalis but is also closely allied to M. rodolfoi (Braas) Luer. The leaves are dark green, mottled with black on the back surface, and with black stems. The flower, more or less facing downward, is yellow and diffusely dotted with red-brown. The lip is basically similar in all three species, but smaller in M. rubeola. The petals of M. rubeola are only one-fourth the size (half the dimensions) of the petals of the other two, and the lower margin is widely dilated above the middle instead of with an acute process.
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