Masdevallia rufolutea

Masdevallia rufolutea is endemic to Peru where it grows in cool wet forest at around 2700m altitude. The species makes quite a large plant with fleshy leaves and large flowers produced on short stems. The plant attracts carion fly pollinators with its unpleasent smell but you have to get close to smell it (unless you are a fly) so this is not a problem. We find that the plant is sensitive to high temperatures and can suffer blotches on the leaves from heat stress but benefits from good light that induces heavy flowering as we have on our plant today. In deep shade less flowers are produced and the leaves grow a darker green. The trick for avaoiding heat stress are to make sure that plants are well watered at the roods (we water the basket every day) and that there is plenty of air and not too much humidity so that plants can transpire effectively to keep cool.

Until recently we grew the species as Masdevallia picea but have changed its label in line with Plants of The World Online (https://powo.science.kew.org/)

Regulars will know that we keep our Cloud forest greenhouse at a minimum of 12C and shade in the summer with external shade net.