This lovely little orchid is blooming now for the fist time. I really like the shape of the flowers and the slight sheer interior. Mine has quite a bit more yellow in the color than other pictures I have seen of this species. I bought another Masdevallia (M. rolfeana) at the same time from the same grower that was mislabeled. Could this one be mislabeled too? But perhaps not, it absolutely lives up to its name.
The name descendens, or the Descending Masdevallia, refers to the whay that the inflorescence grows. I almost missed this first flower all together because it was growing straight down into the pot! I had to gently dig it out of the moss and place it over the edge of the pot. A rescue expedition quickly ensued and two more inflorescences were saved, but they will need another two weeks or so before they flower.
This Masdevallia originally hail from Ecuador where it grows at elevations of 1300 to 1500 meters. It is small in size, and it can handle intermediate growing conditions quite well. I grow mine on the windowsill in sphagnum moss. The pendulous flowers are only about 2 cm long and narrow bell shaped. They grow on a very short inflorescence – that stubbornly insists on gowning straight down – just like the name says.
hi! nice collection of masdevallias 🙂 it seems, that you are growing them all in pure sphagnum moss????
Thanks Olivija! 🙂 I used to cultivate all my Masdevallia in sphagnum moss when I grew them on the windowsill, and it worked really well. This spring I built a huge cool vivarium for mainly Pleurothallids and most of the Masdevallia moved in there. In the vivarium I grow exclusively mounted onto EpiWeb blocks or planted in plastic mesh basket in EpiWeb substrate. It works beautifully in the much more humid and wet environment where I think sphagnum would have been too wet and would also break down too fast.