Masdevallia herradurae 'xanthina'

Masdevallia herradurae is a wonderfully floriferous species that produces a mass of its spidery yellow flowers. The stock plant shown above s growing in a 10cm basket and has more than 50 flowers. The variety 'xanthina' is the yellow version of the species.

The species is native to wet forests in Ecuador and Colombia where it is found from 500 to 2100m altitude, an unusually large range indicating that the species is happy in a wide range of temperatures. We grow our plants in our Cloud Forest Greenhouse with a minimum of 12C and they really flourish, becoming large specimens in short time. The moss on the course bark compost gives an idea of how wet we keep our plants. We also have a plant doing well on our bathroom windowsill.