Stelis allenii L.O. Williams 1942 SECTION Humboldtia
Photo courtesy of Andy's Orchids Copyright © 2002 All rights reserved.
Photo courtesy of Patricia Harding
TYPE Drawing by L O Williams
to 
Common Name or Meaning Allen's Stelis [American Orchid Enthusiast and original Collector of species]
Flower Size 1/2" + [1.25 cm+]
Found in Colcle province of Panama, Ecuador and Bolivia at elevations of 300 to 950 meters as a small to medium sized, hot to cool growing, caespitose epiphyte with an erect stem enveloped completely by 2 to 3, loose, evanescent sheaths and carrying a single, leathery, elliptic to elliptic-oval, acute or obtuse, short petiolate base leaf that blooms at any time of the year but mostly in the spring, on 1 to several, arising through a spathe from a node below the apex of the ramicaul, peduncle 3.2 to 4.8" [8 to 12 cm] long, rachis 2.8 to 11.2" [7 to 28 cm] long, mosly simultaneously many flowered inflorescence with large cucullate bracts and cordate, inflated acute, longer than the ovary floral bracts and carrying the largest, nodding flowers of the genus with green suffused with purple to red-purple sepals and a purple central apparatus.
"Stelis allenii occurs frequently in Panama and western Ecuador, but it has not yet been identified in Colombia. It is a robust, caespitose species with stout ramicauls clad in a large, loose sheath. The leaf is large and leathery with the base subsessile or shortly petiolate. The inflorescence is a tall, erect, congested raceme with large, prominent, purple, floral bracts. The size of the deep purple flowers varies on the same raceme from huge below to smaller above. The multi-veined dorsal sepal is triangular and acute, sometimes exceeding .8" [2 cm] in length. The synsepal is broad and shallowly concave. The petals are semilunate with a broadly rounded, thick margin. The lip is subquadrate-triangular, shallowly concave with a narrow glenion and with a thick, broadly rounded apex. Stelis allenii is similar to S. maxima with which it has been confused. It might exist in herbaria under that name. Stelis allenii differs from the latter by a larger, caespitose, non-prolific habit; broader, subsessile leaves; and larger, inflated floral bracts. The petals and lip are similar, but with details variable." Luer 2018
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;
* The Orchids of Panama L.O. Williams & P Allen 1946;
The Orchids of Panama L.O. Williams & P Allen 1946 drawing fide;
AOS Bulletin Vol 27 No 6 1958;
Encyclopedia of Cultivated Orchids Hawkes 1965;
Orchidaceae Stelis Swartz, Compendium Duque 2008 OK;
Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XXX Lepanthes of Jamaica Stelis of Ecuador Part IV Luer 2009
Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XXX Lepanthes of Jamaica Stelis of Ecuador Part IV Luer 2009drawing fide;
Harvard Pap. Bot. 23: 139 Luer & Escobar 2018 drawing fide
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