Masdevallia filaria

This Masdevallia is from the section Saltatrices, a group of Masdevallias with tubular flowers and a "belly" at the base of the flowers.  With their unusual coloration and shape these flowers have been compared to seahorses.  Whatever they look like the they bloom nearly year-around for me with a flush of new flowers late in the spring.  The plant is 10 cm and the flowers 5 cm.  The species is from Colombia.

Saltatrices Masdevallias

The Saltatrices group of Masdevallias are especially desirable and attractive, at least to me.  They are small plants, the flowers are almost all brightly colored, and most of them are easy to grow and profuse bloomers, if given the right conditions, cool temperatures and good humidity.

They are distinguished to the casual eye by their more or less tubular shape, by a kind of "belly" or bulge at the base of the sepaline tube, and by the glandular hairs that line the inside of the flower.  Their bright colors, reds, oranges and yellows are also often an indication of their relation to this group.

Masdevallia hirtzii

Masdevallia ampullacea

Masdevallia eurynogaster

Masdevallia strobelii

Masdevallia constricta

Masdevallia fuchsii

Masdevallia filaria

Masdevallia mendozae

Masdevallia sotoana

Masdevallia filaria (pale form)

Masdevallia angulifera flava

Masdevallia limax

Masdevallia filaria

Masdevallia filaria is another species from the Saltatrices section of Masdevallia.  Compared with the flowers of Masdevallia ventricularia in the previous post the relationship is obvious.  Both have the tubular shape and "belly" that are characteristic of this section.

The plant of this species is about 10 cm tall and the flowers 5 cm in height.  Like the previous species it blooms in the spring and comes from Colombia.  Its name, filaria, refers to the thread-like tails of the flowers and it sometimes considered to be the same species as ventricularia.

Masdevallia filaria

For some reason I am especially attracted to the flowers of the Saltatrices group of Masdevallias, perhaps because their flowers are so odd.  The flowers in this group are all tubular, many with a kind of bulging "belly": at the base of the flower.  The flowers often are bug-like or slug-like.

Masdevallia ventricularia is usually much more bright colored.  This is a very pale form, but its 7 cm flowers, large for the size of the plant, have the typical tubular shape and "belly" of the group.  It is from Colombia and Ecuador and is a small plant of about 10 cm.