We have another small growing masdevallia today and Masdevallia heradurae is a wonderfully floriferous species that produces a mass of its spidery yellow flowers. This plant is growing in a 10cm basket and has more than 50 flowers out today.

The species is native to wet forests in Ecuador and Colombia where it is found from 500 to 2100m altitude, an unusually large range indicating that the species (or varieties) are happy in a wide range of temperatures. We grow our plants in our Cool Americas section with a minimum of 12C and they really flourish, becoming large specimens in short time. The moss on the course bark compost gives an idea of how wet we keep plants at school.