Stelis bolivarensis Luer & Hirtz 2002 SECTION Humboldtia

TYPE Drawing by Carl Luer

LATE"> EARLY

Common Name or Meaning The Bolivar Stelis [The Province in Venezuela where the species was discovered]

Flower Size .28" [7 mm]

Found in Bolivar province of Venezuela at elevations around 2000 meters as a small sized, cool to cold growing, caespitose epiphyte with stout, erect ramicauls enveloped by a tubular sheath above the middle and 2 to 3 thin tubular sheaths at the base and carrying a single, erect, coriaceous, elliptical, obtuse, abruptly contracted below into the stout, long-petiolate base leaf that blooms in the late winter and early spring on an erect, peduncle 2 to 2.4" [5 to 6 cm] long, with a spathe .8" [2 cm] long, from an annulus below the apex of the ramicaul, congesed, distichous, simultaneously many, progressively many flowered inflorescence with infundibular, oblique, shorter to as long as the ovary floral bract and carrying purple flowers.

"Similar to S purpurea but S bolivarensis is distinguished by the large habit, large, elliptical, abruptly long-petiolate base leaf amd a congested raceme of relatively large purple flowers with a conspicuous bracts produced in 2 ranks. The dorsal sepalis noticeably langer than the deeply concave synsepal, which in turn is deeply concave with a mentum. The petals ae protruberant with thick fleshy apices. The dorsum of the lip is filled with a single large callus." Luer 2009

Synonyms

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;

* Icones Pleurothallidinarum XXIV A First Century of Stelis of Ecuador Luer 2002

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

Native Ecuadorian Orchids Vol 5 Doson 2004 drawing fide

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