
Masdevallia fulvescens
Masdevallia fulvescens Rolfe, Gard. Chron. ser. 3(8): 325. 1890.
Type: Costa Rica: without locality, Dec. 1889, imported by F. Horsman s.n. (holotype, K).
Illustrated specimen: Costa Rica. Heredia: San Isidro, 1688 m. 30 diciembre 2013. D. Bogarín 10803(a), M. Bonilla, A. Villalobos, G. Villalobos & J.J. Zúñiga (JBL-spirit; LCDP voucher).
Etymology: From the Latin fulvescens, “tawny”, referring to the yellowish-brown color of the flowers.
Even though this specimen is the same illustrated in other plates of this series (Bogarín 10803), there are visually more differences between the two flowerings of this individual plant than those recorded with another specimen of M. fulvescens from the same population (see, in this series, Bogarín 10823). The height of the plant decreased, under artificial cultivation, to 4 cm, making the inflorescence overshoot it. The lateral sepals have a bleached appearance. The tails, both dorsal and lateral, as observed in the first simultaneous flowering of this plant, present different orientations, showing how much plastic this characteristic can be in this species. On the other hand, the morphology of the lip and the column remains very consistent, possibly because of the more specific relationship of these organs with the pollinator.