| Dracula tubeana | |||||||||||||||||
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Dracula tubeana is an epiphytic orchid in the genus Dracula.
Description[]
Dracula tubeana is broad-leafed Dracula with successively-flowered long inflorescences. The large flower is similar to polyphemos and cordobae: cream colored with red edging, longish tails, and a white fungus-shaped lip.
This species was discovered by Consul Lehmann.
Distribution[]
Dracula tubeana is found in cool cloud forests (2000 m elevation) west of Quito, Ecuador, towards Chiriboga. It had been known in the late 1800s, but was erroneously described from the hot lowlands of the Bolivar province. This error has lead to confusion even in recent times about its cultural requirements. It is most certainly not a warm-growing Dracula.
Culture[]
Cool, moist, shady, and breezy. Some find this Dracula difficult to cultivate; others are quite successful.
Naming[]
Etymology: Luer originally named this species Dracula tarantula. Unfortunately, he was forced to abandon this delicious name once it became apparent that the species had been described a century earlier from material supplied to Reichenbach by an Herr Tube of Saxon (Germany). Consul Lehmann apparently discovered the species and had painted it.
Common name: Tube's Dracula
Synonyms[]
- Dracula tarantula (Luer) Luer 1978
- Masdevallia tarantula Luer 1978
- *Masdevallia tubeana Rchb. f. 1878