Masdevallia datura

In Explore April 15, 2011, #286.

I posted a picture of a flower from this orchid recently, but thought I'd post another - I am really taken with this plant. With the previous picture I posted the following information. This species is from Ecuador and has huge flowers on a small plant. The plant is about 12 cm tall, but the flowers are nearly the same size from the back of the flower to the tip of the tails, and even larger, 15 cm, from tip to tip. The name, datura, refers to the flowers' resemblance to those of the Moonflower, Datura inoxia, which they do indeed resemble both in color and form. The plant flowers primarily in the spring, and the flowers have a faint, lily-like fragrance.

This photo was selected the week of May 22-28 as the Orchid Photo of the Week on the website of the American Orchid Society.

This photo was also published on the cover of "Orchids," the monthly magazine of the American Orchid Society, December, 2011.

Published in the December, 2011, issue of Orkideer, the magazine of the Swedish Orchid Society in an article on orchid photography.