Our Cool Americas section has lots of species in flower this week and as well as the giant Laelia superbiens featured yesterday there are some great Masdevalllia species.

Masdevallia discolor has not featured on 365 days before and is a small growing species from Colombian cloud forests between 2400 and 2800m altitude. Leaves are 5cm long and the flowers are large in comparison. We find that flowers are produced sporadically throughout the year. In common with a number of masdevallias the dark orange colour on the flower is from dark hairs on the yellow sepals making the flowers well worth a close inspection with a magnifying glass.

We grow the species in a basket in a shaded spot and keep it well watered all year.