Orchid, Masdevallia Chimaera, 1880
by Biodiversity Heritage Library
Title
Orchid, Masdevallia Chimaera, 1880
Artist
Biodiversity Heritage Library
Medium
Photograph - Photograph
Description
Entitled "Masdevallia chimaera" taken from "Les orchidées" by Paul Emile de Puydt, published 1880. Paul Émile de Puydt (March 6, 1810 - May 20, 1891) was a Belgian writer whose contributions included work in botany and economics. As a botanist, he notably wrote on orchids. The standard botanical author abbreviation De Puydt is applied to species he described. Dracula chimaera is a species of orchid. The orchid genus Dracula, abbreviated as Drac in horticultural trade, consists of 118 species native to Mexico, Central America, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru. The name Dracula literally means "little dragon", an allusion to the mythical Count Dracula. The name was applied to the orchid because of the blood-red color of several of the species, and because of the strange aspect of the long spurs of the sepals. The plants were once included in the genus Masdevallia, but became a separate genus in 1978. Orchidaceae is a diverse and widespread family of flowering plants with blooms that are often colorful and often fragrant, commonly known as the orchid family. All orchids are perennial herbs that lack any permanent woody structure. Orchids are easily distinguished from other plants, as they share some very evident shared derived characteristics. Among these are bilateral symmetry of the flower (zygomorphism), many resupinate flowers, a nearly always highly modified petal, fused stamens and carpels, and extremely small seeds.
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July 12th, 2015
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