Stelis cryophila luer & Hirtz 2007 SECTION Stelis

Drawing by © Carl Luer

LATE EARLY

Common Name The Cold Loving Stelis [refers to the habit]

Flower Size .12" [3 mm]

Found in Carchi province of Ecuador at elevations around 3400 meters as a mini-miniature sized, cold growing, caespitose epiphyte with erect, stout, occasionally prolific ramicauls enveloped by a tubular sheath near the middle and 2 others at the base and carrying a single, apical, erect, coriaceous, elliptical-oblong, obtuse, cuneate below into the petiolate base leaf that blooms in the late summer and early fall on 1 to 3, congested, overlapping, 3.2 to 4" [8 to 10 cm] long, including the .4" [1 cm] long peduncle, mostly simultaneously many flowered inflorescence arising from a spathe from an annulus below the apex of the ramicaul and has oblique, acute, shorter to longer than the ovary floral bracts and carrying flowers with dull yellow to purple sepals, dark purple petals and lip.

"The plants are stout with some ramicauls producing another. The racemes are crowded with long pointed floral bracts and overlapping flowers. The spelas are fleshy, obtuse and not widely spread. The concave lip witha triangulr apex is wedged between the lateal sepals." Luer 2007

Synonyms

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;

* Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XXIX Luer 2007

Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XXIX Luer 2007 drawing fide;

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