Masdevallia lychniphora

According to Masdevallias: Gems of the Orchid World by Gerritsen & Parsons (2005), Masdevallia lychniphora is found in a relatively small area in Peru; in the cloud forest between Chachapoyas and Pomacochas at an elevation of 2000m.  The species name (epithet) means ruby-bearing, which indicated the color of the bottom (lateral) sepals.  Mine seems to have deeper color, and it is more of purple than ruby red.  I wonder if the temperature influences the color in this species.  Does anyone know?



The leaves show fair amount of damage.  I got this from Ecuagera about 1.5 years ago.  It was pretty stressed when I received it with the petioles (base stem) of the leaves turning black, and lots of leaves fell down. This was the initial condition:

Fortunately, it was a big size plant, and it managed to survive the initial acclimation (it lost many more leaves during the process).  I was originally keeping it around 12.8-15.6C (55-60F) night with 18.3-21.1C (65-70F) day.  But its growth/recovery was quite slow, so I moved it to a colder environment about 6 months ago, which was a good move.  In the 2nd photo, there are larger, stressed-looking leaves, and smaller green leaves.  The larger stressed leaves are the left-over from the initial importation or before the cold environment.  In the colder environment, it's making leaves more rapidly, even though the leaves are smaller.  And it finally flowered!  In a year or so, the plant should look better!

Willam Ames Rhodehamel's "A Masdevallia Cultural Guide" recommends intermediate (day/night of 12.8-20C/8.9-13.3C = 55-68F/48-56F) or cool (10-16.7C/4.4-11.7C = 50-62F/40-53F) temperature.  Rhodehamel's temperature scale is for Masdevallia, and not for general orchids.


Current environment for my cool-growing orchids:

• Temperature: 20C (68F) day, 10C (50F) night
• Relative Humidity: constant 80%
• Light: 13h day, photosynthetic photon flux density (PPFD) of 120 µmol m-2 s-1 from florescent light
• Water: RO water from MistKing twice a day (50 seconds each), the roots stay moist.
• Potted in a 3" Terra-cotta pot with Sphagnum moss.
• Fertilizer etc.: Dyna-Gro Grow at 20ppmN + equal amount of Dyna-Gro ProTeKt + Seaplex Kelp (1TBS/gallon) or MaxiCrop (2TBS/gallon).  I spray this mixture about 2-3 times per week.  When it looks stressed, I add 4 tablets of 325mg aspirin per gallon to the fertilizer mix.