Stelis atroviolacea Rchb.f. 1855 SECTION Stelis
Photo/Drawings by © S Manning/ Dunsterville/Carl Luer
Common Name The Dark Purple Stelis
Flower Size .2” [5 mm]
Found in Venezuela, Colombia and Ecuador in cloud forests at elevations around 1300 to 2200 meters as a mini-miniature sized, cool to cold growing, ascending-caespitose epiphyte with stout, erect ramicauls enveloped by 2 tubular sheaths and carrying a single, apical, erect, coriaceous, narrowly elliptical-oblong, obtuse, cuneate below into the petiolate base leaf that blooms in the fall on an erect, distichous, subcongested, 2.4 to 3.2” [6 to 8 cm] long including the .4” [1 cm] long peduncle, mostly simultaneous many flowered inflorescence arising through a spathe from near the apex of the ramicaul with oblique, acute, as long as the pedicel or shorter than the ovary floral bracts.
Similar to S madsenii but differs in obtuse leaves, larger "purplish black" flowers in a congested raceme and a deeply concave lip with a shelf-like bar." Luer 2007 as S lacunata
Synonyms Stelis lacunata Luer & Endara 2007; Stelis papillosa Garay 1956
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;
* Bonplandia (Hannover) 3: 70 Rchb.f 1855
Canad. J. Bot. 34: 352 Garay 1956 as S papillosa;
Venezuelan Orchids Illustrated Vol 2 Dunsterville & Garay 1961 drawing fide;
Flora de Venezuela Foldats Volumen XV Part 2 1970 drawing ok;
Orchids of Venenzuela An Illustrated Field Guide Vol 3 Dunsterville & Garay 1979 drawing fide;
Orchids of Venezuela [An illustrated field guide] Vol. 3 Ramiro and Carnevali 2000 drawing fide;
Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XXIX Luer 2007
Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XXIX Luer 2007 as S lacunata drawing good;
Orchidaceae Stelis Sw. A Compendium 2008 drawing fide;
Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XXX Lepanthes of Jamaica Stelis of Ecuador Part IV Luer 2009
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