Stelis braccata Rchb.f. & Warsz. 1854 SECTION Stelis
Photo by © Alexander Hirtz
Drawings by © Carl Luer
Drawing by © Dunsterville
Common Name The Trouser Wearing Stelis [refers to the cauline sheaths]
Flower Size .12” [3 mm]
Found in Venezuela, Antioquia, Cundinamarca, and Nariño departments of Colombia and Ecuador at elevations around 1700 to 3500 meters as a mini-miniature sized, cool to cold growing, densely caespitose epiphyte with fascicled, erect, slender ramicauls enveloped by a loose tubular sheath near the middle and 2 others at the base and carrying a single, apical, erect, coriaceous, narrowly ellipitical-oblong, subacute to narrowly obtuse, narrowly cuneate below into the petiolate base leaf that blooms at most any time of the year on a fascile of 2 to 6, arising through a spathe near the apex of the ramicaul, erect, congested, distichousd 4.4” [ 11 cm] long including the .4” [1 cm] long peduncle, simultaneously several flowered inflorescence with oblique, acute, shorter than the ovary floral bracts.
"Stelis braccata, widely distributed from coastal Venezuela into Ecuador, is distinguished by slender, densely fascicled ramicauls that are about as long as narrow leaves, and 2–5 slender, congested, several- to many-flowered racemes that vary in length. The sepals are glabrous, minute and broadly ovate, and the petals are 1-veined. The minute lip is about 0.5 mm long with a variable bar and apex." Luer 2018
Synonyms Apatostelis braccata (Rchb.f. & Warsz.) Garay 1979; Apatostelis minimiflora (Schltr.) Garay 1979; Apatostelis pleistantha (Schltr.) Garay 1979; Stelis minimiflora Schltr. 1924; Stelis pleistantha Schltr. 1924
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;
* Bonplandia (Hannover) 2: 114 Rchb.f 1854;
Repert. Spec. Nov. Regni Veg. Beih. 27: 31 Schlechter 1924 as S minimiflora;
Repert. Spec. Nov. Regni Veg. Beih. 27: 36 Schlechter 1924 as S pleistantha;
Bot. Mus. Leafl. 27: 187 Garay 1979 as Apatostelis braccata;
Bot. Mus. Leafl. 27: 189 Garay 1979 as Apatostelis minimiflora;
Bot. Mus. Leafl. 27: 190 Garay 1979 as Apatostelis pleistantha;
Venezuelan Orchids Illustrated Vol 1 Dunsterville & Garay 1959 drawing fide;
AOS Bulletin VOl 36 #9 1967;
Flora de Venezuela Foldats Volumen XV Part 2 1970 drawing ok;
Orchids of Venezuela An Illustrated Field Guide Vol 3 Dunsterville & Garay 1979 drawing good;
Orchids of Venezuela [An illustrated field guide] Vol. 3 Ramiro and Carnevali 2000 as S miniliflora drawing fide;
Flora of the Venezuelan Guayana Vol 7 Steyermark, Berry, Yatskievych and Holst 2003 as S minimiflora;
Native Ecuadorian Orchids Vol 5 Dodson 2004 as S minimiflora photo fide;
Orquidaceae Stelis Swartz A Compendium Duque 2008 drawing fide;
Orquidaceae Stelis Swartz A Compendium Duque 2008 S minimiflora drawing hmm;
Orquidaceae Stelis Swartz A Compendium Duque 2008 S pleisantha;
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 2009 drawing fide;
Harvard Pap. Bot. 23: 43 Luer & Escobar 2018 as S pleisantha Drawing fide
Harvard Pap. Bot. 23: 142 Luer & Escobar 2018 drawing fide
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