Porroglossum muscosum (Rchb. f.) Schltr. 1920
SUBGENUS Porroglossum SECTION Echidna Luer 1987
Photos by Jay Pfahl ©
Photos by Patricia Harding
Photos by Jay Pfahl
Photos by Peter Bryder ©
to 
Common Name The Mossy Porroglossum [Refers to the pubescent peduncle]
Flower Size about 3/4" [2 cm]
Found in Venezuela, Colombia and Ecuador in wet montane forests at elevations of 1600 to 3000 meters as a miniature sized, epiphytic or terrestrial, cool to cold growing epiphyte with an erect, slender ramicaul enveloped by 2 to 3 tubular sheaths and a single, apical, erect, thickly coriaceous, verrucose, purple suffused, narrowly elliptic to narrowly obovate leaf and blooms in the fall on an erect, densly pubescent, to 6 to 7" [15 to 17.5 cm] long, successively few flowered inflorescence with a single central bract and has tubular, imbricating floral bracts, with a single flower at a time held well above the leaves.
This species has an interesting muscular lip that can be activated to close shut in a second after which it takes a half hour to relax. Studies have been done to see if this mechanism is a means of trapping insects to achieve pollen transfer.
Synonyms *Masdevallia muscosa Rchb. f. 1875; Masdevallia xipheres Rchb. f. 1876; Porroglossum xipheres (Rchb. f.) Garay 1967; Scaphosepalum xipheres (Rchb. f.) Schltr. 1920
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Die Orchideen Schlechter 1915 as Masdevallia muscosa; AOS Bulletin Vol 27 No 1 1958 as Masdevallia muscosa drawing ok; Die Orchideen 3 Auflage Bd 1 Sonderabdruck aus Schlechter Lieferung 8 449 - 512 Brieger, Maatsch and Senghas 1976 as Masdevallia muscosa; Encyclopedia of Cultivated Orchids Hawkes 1965 as Masdevallia muscosa; Icones Pleurothallidinarum Systematics of the Pleurothallidinae Vol 1 1986 drawing fide; Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol IV Systematics of Acostaea, Condylago and Porroglossum Luer 1987 drawing fide; Orchids Travel By Air A Pictoral Safari Mulder, Mulder-Roelfsema and Schuiteman 1990 photo fide; The Manual Of Cultivated Orchid Species Bechtel, Cribb & Launert 1992 drawing fide; Native Colombian Orchids Vol 4 COS 1992 photo fide; AOS Bulletin Vol 70 No 1 2001 photo fide; Native Ecuadorian Orchids Vol 4 Dodson 2003 photo ok; Orquideas Nativas del Tachira Cesar Fernandez 2003 photo ok; AOS Bulletin Vol 74 No 9 2005 photo fide; Orchid Digest Vol 70 #1 2006 photo fide; Mille et Une Mini Orchideees Roguenant 2009 photo fide; An Illustrated Field Guide to the Orchids of the Yotoco Forest Reserve Colombia Kolanowska, Escobar, Sanchez & Szlachetko 2011 drawing/photo fide; Orchids Masdevallia with its segregates including Dracula Zelenko 2014 photo fide; Pleurothallids Neotropical Jewels Vol 1 Karremans & Viera 2020 photo fide
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