Masdevallia aphanes
Masdevallia aphanes is a tiny, easily overlooked epiphyte (the name means inconspicuous) described by Königer in 1985 from wet mossy forest in Carchi, north-west Ecuador, with a further record from Amazonas in northern Peru. It grows between about 1,700 and 2,300 m and is a cool grower that needs constant moisture, high humidity and low light. It is rarely cultivated and the guidance here rests on the collection sites and on cool-growing Masdevallia generally.
Where it grows wild
Collections describe it as an epiphyte in wet, mossy forest east of Maldonado on the Pacific slope of Carchi, a landscape of near-permanent fog and very heavy rain. The Peruvian record, between Chachapoyas and Pomacochas, is also cloud forest.
Specimen labels give 1,700 to 2,300 m in Carchi and about 2,000 m in Amazonas, Peru.
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Profiles are drafts built from measured range and climate and from published sources; each section carries its own confidence in the app. Photo from Wikimedia Commons, used under its CC BY-SA 3.0 licence, unmodified.