Stelis ascendens Lind. 1836 SECTION Stelis
Drawing of S amoena by © Carl Luer
Original Drawing by © Padre Pedro Ortiz Conserved at the Herbario de la Universidad Javeriana, Bogota Colombia
LATE
EARLY 
Common Name The Ascending Stelis
Flower Size .2" [5 mm]
Found in Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru in cloud forests at elevations around 2700 to 3100 meters as a mini-miniature sized, cold growing epiphyte with ascending, more or less remote ramicauls partly enveloped by 2 to 3, fibrous sheaths and carrying a single, apical, coriaceous, erect, oblong elliptic, subacute obtuse gradually narrowing below in to the shortly petiolate base leaf that blooms in the late summer and early fall on an erect, subcongested, distichous, twice as long as the leaf, 4 to 10" [10 to 25 cm] long including the 2.4 to 4" [6 to 10 cm] long peduncle, loosely many flowered inflorescence arising from an annulus below the apex of the ramicaul with acute, oblique floral bracts.
Some references place this species under S jamesonii, I, like Schweinfurth keep them separate.
"Vegetatively variable, epiphytically or as a terrestrial, and either ascending or caespitose, long scandent to densely fasiculate. A long, distichous, many flowered raceme often far surpasses the leaf. The sepals are ovate, obtuse and pubescent within and the petals are rounded and three veined. The lip is thickly discoid, broader than deep, a variation of type C and is shallowly concave with a rounded thin margin. An elongated glenion descends from the surface if the thick bar with a glenion extending forward form the densely pubescent base." Luer 2009
Synonyms Stelis amoena Luer & Hirtz 2002; Stelis vittata Lindl. 1859
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;
* Companion Bot. Mag. 2: 353 Lindley 1837;
Fol. Orchid. 8: 9 Willd. ex Lindley 1859 as Humboltia oblonga nom. illeg.;
Fol. Orchid. 8: 13 Lindley 1859 as S vittata;
Orchids of Peru Vol 1 Schweinfurth 1958;
Flora de Venezuela Foldats Volumen XV Part 2 1970 drawing ok;
Flora de Venezuela Volumen XV Parte 2 Foldats 1970 as S vittata drawing ok;
Venezuelan Orchids Illustrated Vol 5 Dunsterville & Garay 1972 as S lentignosa drawing fide;
Orchids of Venezuela, An Illustrated Field Guide Vol 3 Dunsterville & Garay 1979 as S lentignosa drawing fide;
Orchids of Venezuela [An illustrated field guide] Vol. 3 Ramiro and Carnevali 2000 as S lentignosa Drawing fide;
Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XXIV Luer 2002 as S amoena
Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XXIV A First Century of Stelis of Ecuador Luer 2002 as S amoena drawing fide;
Native Ecuadorian Orchids Vol 5 Dodson 2004 drawing good as S amoena;
Orchidaceae Stelis Swartz Duque 2008 as a synonym of S jamesonii;
Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XXX Lepanthes of Jamaica Stelis of Ecuador part IV Luer 2009
Orchidees du Bresil As Orquideas da Serra do Castelo [Espiritu Santo Brazil] Chiron & Bolsanello Vol 2 2013 as S amoena drawing ok
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