The spectacular flowers in these photographs are from one of our favourite small growing masdevallia species.

Masdevallia pachyura is a multi-flowered species found in cloud forests from 1000 to 3000m in Ecuador and Peru. As could be expected from its range it is a variable species but all have pretty little flowers and in our experience the species is straight forward in cultivation and multiplies relatively quickly.

This variety is named ‘caudas orange’ and is from the Ecuagenera nursery in Ecuador and the deep orange lip contrasts beautifully with the yellow tails on the sepals.

The species does well in pots and baskets and we keep it watered well throughout the year in Cool Americas.