Today’s species is miniature and the plant shown here in its 3cm pot has 4cm leaves and lots of single flowers on 4cm stems.

Masdevallia minuta is native to Costa Rica to Ecuador and is a mini-miniature and we have a number of species with similar flowers (probably attracting similar pollinators) but this is the smallest growing.

This species enjoys being constantly damp and this results in moss forming on the pot which must be kept under control to stop it out competing the orchid. We grow the plant in our Cool Americas section in shade under other plants where it flourishes and can be divided every few years,