I ordered this from Ecuagenera last September. This list featured a small selection of more rare species not listed on the website and I was quite thrilled to see this one beginning to set a spike earlier this spring. Judge my surprise when the flower finally opened up and looked much different than any Masdevallia macrura I have ever seen. At first I was a little disappointed as the flowers I had been anticipating are rather distinct and quite special… This is a very beautiful flower too and I do love it, but I really wanted to have the correct ID for it. Especially since it had cost a little extra to procure.
So this weekend while at the Sofiero orchid show in the south of Sweden, I asked Jose Portilla who was there representing Ecuagenera about this plant. He said that this is indeed Masdevallia macrura, but a rare brown color form. He said that they had been really surprised when some of the seed propagated plants turned out this way, but a DNA test confirmed that it really was a variation of Masdevallia macrura… Very cool actually, I really love learning a little about the story behind a plant and also to get the correct ID of course. So I am quite pleased about my purchase now, for more than aesthetic reasons. It is always fun to have something rare in the collection.
Masdevallia macrura was registered in 1874 and it is a medium size species from Colombia and Ecuador, a cool growing epiphyte or lithophyte found at elevations of 2300-2600 meters. The regular macrura is known as “the long tail Masdevallia” and the flowers can measure up to 25 cm tall and are the largest in the genus. This brown color form lack the impressive long sepals however and the rigidly fleshy flowers measure about 10 cm tall and 1.8 cm wide. I grow it mounted on EpiWeb in the cool vivarium, low light and high humidity.
***Edit: So, the debate is on… regarding the authenticity of this species. Weather it really is as claimed or simply a bench hybrid involving M macrura..? And the argumentation for the latter is weighing in pretty heavy. I do like these flowers, that much is not in question, but certainly feel quite uneasy paying this much for a hybrid. I think I need to have another talk with Ecuagenera about this and see what they say.
