Stelis andreettae Luer & Hirtz 2002 SECTION Stelis

TYPE Drawing by Carl Luer

Common Name or Meaning Andreeta's Stelis [Ecuadorian Priest and Orchid Enthusiast and Co-collector of the type 9/13/2011]

Flower Size .2" [5 mm]

Found in Zamora-Chinchipe province of Ecuador at elevations around 2250 meters as a miniature to small sized, cold growing, denselycaespitose to shortly repent epiphyte with erect, relatively slender ramicauls enveloped by a close tublar sheath above the middle and 2 others at the base and carrying a single, erect, coriaceous, elliptical-ovate, subacute to obtuse, cuneate below into the petiolate base leaf that blooms in the fall on an erect, peduncle .4" [1 cm] long, arising through a spathe .4" [1 cm] long, with an annulus below the apex of the ramicaul, rachis 1.6 to 2.4" [4 to 6 cm] long, subcongested, distichous, mostly simultaneously many flowered inflorescence with oblique, acute, inflated, as long to longer than the ovary floral bract and carrying flowers with similar, glabrous yellow sepals, brown petals and a brown lip.

"Superficially similar to S lindenii but but the ramicaul of S andreetae is slender with a sheath above the middle and the raceme is shorter than the leaf. The sepals are expanded, membraneous, broadly ovate, obtuse and three veined, instead of fleshy, sensitive and five veined. The broadly obtuse petals are not remarkably different from those of S lindenii. The lip is much less deeply concave." Luer 2002

Synonyms

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;

* Icones Pleurothallidinarum XXIV A First Century of Stelis of Ecuador Part 1 Luer 2002 Drawing fide;

Native Ecuadorian Orchids Vol 5 Dodson 2004 drawing fide

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