Species library › Masdevallia › Masdevallia melanoxantha
Orchids Partly documented

Masdevallia melanoxantha

Masdevallia melanoxantha Linden & Rchb.f. is a Colombian and Venezuelan species with yellow sepals and a dark purple centre, described in 1854.

Masdevallia melanoxantha
Photo: Naoki Takebayashi from Fairbanks, AK, USA, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
At home, aim for
Day IntermediateTargets in Plantistry
Night Close to the dayTargets in Plantistry
Humidity Humid airBand in Plantistry
Light Dappled lightDLI and PPFD in Plantistry
No rest periodGrows on trees (epiphyte)

Where it grows wild

Epiphyte of very wet montane forest on the eastern Andean slope above the llanos; the microhabitat is inferred from the genus as mossy branches in shade to dappled light.

Three records at 1,580–1,675 m, median 1,675 m.

ColombiaVenezuela

🔒 Growing it like that

The wild conditions above, turned into targets for a shelf, a tent or a greenhouse. The full profile has:

✓ Day and night temperature targets, and the limits it tolerates
✓ Humidity band, and how to hold it
✓ Light as DLI and PPFD for a grow light
✓ Wet and dry seasons, and whether to rest it
✓ Substrate and airflow
✓ A step-by-step setup to grow it like the wild

Grow Masdevallia melanoxantha? Add it to a free garden and its full profile opens. Pro opens all 38,374 profiles in the library, plants and fungi.

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 2.0 licence, unmodified.