Species library › Masdevallia › Masdevallia paivaeana
Orchids Partly documented

Masdevallia paivaeana

Masdevallia paivaeana Rchb.f. is a Peruvian and Bolivian species described in 1881, with only four wild records, all in the Bolivian Yungas. It is best treated as an intermediate-to-cool Andean cloud-forest Masdevallia that sees a real dry season.

Masdevallia paivaeana
Photo: Orchi, CC BY-SA 3.0, 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

An epiphyte of humid montane forest on the eastern Andean slopes (Yungas) of Bolivia and southern Peru.

Records lack elevations; the record-weighted site is at about 1400 m, while other sites at 200 m and 3700 m are likely mis-georeferenced. Expect roughly 1500 to 2800 m.

BoliviaPeru

🔒 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 paivaeana? 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 3.0 licence, unmodified.