Stelis dressleri Luer 1981 SECTION Stelis
Photo by © Ricardo Marin Thiele and his Flickr Orchid photo Website
Drawing by © Carl Luer
Drawing of S morganii not = S dressleri
Drawing of S morganii not = S dressleri by © Barbara Culbertson
LATE 
EARLY
Common Name Dressler's Stelis [American Botanist in Panama Current]
Flower Size .2" [5 mm]
Found in Costa Rica, Veraguas department of Panama and Choco' department of western Colombia at elevations around 200 to 700 meters as a mini-miniature sized, hot to warm growing, shortly scandent epiphyte with with a creeping rhizome giving rise to erect ramicauls enveloped by 2 brown, loose, tubular sheaths and carrying a single, erect, coriaceous, ovate-oblong, subacute to rounded apically, more or less abruptly rounded into the twisted petiolate base leaf that blooms in the late summer and early fall on 1 to 2, short, on the back side of the leaf, densely many flowered inflorescence with thin, inflated, as long as the ovary floral bracts and carrying greenish white flowers with a cream colored lip.
Similar to S morganii but the glabrous sepals, pubescent petals and minutely apiculate lip immediately distinguish S dressleri." Luer 1981
"This species is an uncommon, low-land species known from Central America and low-land, western Colombia. The collection described as Stelis gustavi O.Duque was obtained from a local orchid enthusiast, and I have no doubt that the locality at 2500 meters altitude is erroneous. The habit of this species is distinctive and very similar to that of the larger Stelis morganii Dodson & Garay, which is relatively frequent in Ecuador. The densely fasciculate, erect ramicauls bear overlapping, elliptical leaves, behind which a few, simultaneous racemes are borne. The sepals are glabrous, while those of S. morganii are long-pubescent." Luer 2018
Also similar to S scandens
Synonyms
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;
Icones Plantarum Tropicarum Plate 328 Dodson & Garay 1980 as S morganii not = S dressleri drawing fide;
* Phytologia 49: 227 Luer 1981
Harvard Pap. Bot. 23: 26 Luer & Escobar 2018 Drawing fide
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