Masdevallia princeps

[Rick Barry]

This is Masdevallia princeps, a Peruvian species.
10" top-to-bottom. For a Masdevallia, a warm grower.
Purchased from Ecuagenera of Ecuador.





Regards,
Rick

[shakkai]

How stunning!! (Great photos!) Such a beautiful plant. Quite a unique Masdie.

[Dorothy]

WOW
Awesome!

[smartie2000]

awesome colour and cool long shape

[Lagoon]

Fabulous

[cb977]

A warm growing Masdie that looks like that?!?
I...must...have...one!

[Restrepia]

OMG That is going on my want list for sure. Great pics!

[niller-find]

Stunning!
Can you post a picture, showing the entire plant?
Are you growing it in warm conditions?
I've just bought a princeps, hopefully it will look as gorgeous as your plant
Congrats with the succesfull blooming.

[beanluc]

I have one of these, see



I got it last September, it had one spike in bloom. It has grown a second spike and both of them continue to bloom. Each flower takes about 4 weeks to develop, then the open flower lasts about 1 week before falling off. Usually the 2 spikes overlap by about 1-2 days when I have 2 blossoms at once!

OK, about conditions:
I live in San Francisco, very near the Golden Gate, so it's a pretty maritime microclimate here. It's usually in the low 60'sF here in the winter, high 60's and really foggy in the summer, and I have this orchid in a north-east corner of a glassed-in front porch that's unheated but is really more of a room of the house rather than an outside walled-in porch.
Anyway so it gets direct sunlight in the morning, filtered through a window and a Venetian blind, then the rest of the day it gets plenty of indirect daylight through windows on 2 sides. I meter this at about 3000 footcandles early, and 800 footcandles later. On overcast days it's only 1500 footcandles in the morning.
The humidity in the room is almost always above 70%, unless it gets very warm outside. And I have a big pebble tray for it too. In the late spring and all autumn that's typical (mid-70'sF, very occasionally >80F). On days like that I open the windows to improve air circulation and to reduce the greenhouse effect in the room. Quite often, especially on cooler days, humidity is above 90%.
This orchid was nurseried in San Francisco before I got it, so it needed virtually no acclimatization period.
When I got it, the old spike had four old flower nodes, so I think it must have started blooming in May or June. Here it is, January, and still going! I don't know when it will be dormant, if ever.

So: Warm-growing? Well, warmer than most Masd's, for sure. I don't know about really warm, though. If I had it in the similar porch room on the south-facing side, where I have my Vanda coerulea, I doubt it would do anywhere near as well.

[kavanaru]

that's a very nice one

as for warm masdies...

Masdevallia lata, Masd. floribunda, Masd. guttulata, Masd. herradurae, Masd. minuta: these species grow in Venezuela and/or Colombia and/or Caribbean at altitudes lower than 600 meters above sea level. Masd. tonduzii at 300 - 900 m in Panama and Costa Rica, and Masd. mejiana at 500 - 800 m in Colombia. , and that in this part of the world, is not warm, but Hot! the distribution of them goes up to 2000 meters though, therefore it must be (at least) warm and cold growing clones...

There is also Masd. chasei and Masd. lilacina, which are reported to be warm growers... their are to be found at altitudes around 900/1500 - 1800/2000, respectively; Masd. infracta at 1000 to 2000 m in Brasil and Bolivia, and Masd. rex at 900 m in ecuador. 900/1500 in in this region, can be quite warm, depending on the exact location, however, in most cases it can cool down at nights... I would consider these more as warm tolerant and/or warm adaptable...