Stelis aperta Garay 1979 SECTION Nexiopus
Photo by © Francisco Tobar and his Flickr Orchid Photo Website
Drawing by © Luer
Common Name The Open Stelis [refers to the flat wide open flower]
Flower Size .2" [5 mm]
Found in Napo, Pastaza, Tungurahua, loja and Zamora-chinchipe provinces of Ecuador at elevations of 2000 to 2700 meters as a medium sized, cold growing, caespitose epiphyte with a slender, erect ramicaul enveloped by a 3 tubular sheath with the upper one slightly inflated and carrying a single, apical, erect, coriaceous, narrowly elliptic, acute, narrowing below into the shortly petiolate base leaf that blooms in the fall and winter on an erect, subdensely, to 10.8” [to 27 cm] long including the short peduncle, many flowered inflorescence arising through a spathe with oblique, cucullate-acute, acuminate, just shorter to just longer than the ovary floral bracts.
"Characterized by stout ramicauls with large floral bracts. The lateral sepals, diverging variably, are connate about half the length of the dorsal sepal, while barely connate to each other at the base. The proportionally smaller petals are transversely oblong. The lip is round and shallowly concave with a pair of erect lamellae below the middle." Luer 2009
Synonyms
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;
* Bot. Mus. Leafl. 27: 182 Garay 1979 Bot. Mus. Leafl. 27: 182 Garay 1979 drawing fide;
Native Ecuadorian Orchids Vol 5 Dodson 2004 photo fide;
Orchidaceae Stelis Sw. Duque 2008 drawing good;
Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XXX Lepanthes of Jamaica Stelis of Ecuador Part 4 Luer 2009
Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XXX Lepanthes of Jamaica Stelis of Ecuador Part 4 Luer 2009drawing fide;
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