Masdevallia civilis

Unusually for a Masdevallia, this species is a terestrial or lythophyte growing in moss covered rocks and poor soils on grassy banks in cool clous forests on limestone. The species is found from Venzuela through Colombia and Ecuador to Peru at altitudes from 2000 to 3000m. Our cloud forest greenhouse replicates the natural climate and find that plants  grow well quite high in the greenhouse in good light. Despite its terrestrial habit we find plants do really well mounted which allows their flowers to present clear of any pot despite being low down in the leaves - we guess that plants have evolved to grow on a steeply sloping surface (rock or bank). Most other terrestrial Masdevallias have long flower stems to hold flowers clear of surrounding vegetation.