365 days of orchids – day 403 – Masdevallia paquishae
Masdevallia paquishae is new to 365 days of orchids and is one of our more unusual masdevallias. This miniature growing species (the basket below is a 3inch basket) produces relatively large flowers on downward growing flower stems making it very important to grow plants in baskets or mounted.
The species is named after the town Paquisha in Ecuador but is found in both Ecuador and Peru. It grows in wet forest from 1500-1750m and so is not as cool growing as some of our higher altitude masdevallias but seems happy in the same conditions in Cool Americas. We love the striped sepals and the large (for a masdevallia) red lip.
Discussion