Stelis cairoensis Luer 2009 SECTION Stelis

TYPE Drawing © by Carl Luer and Selbyana 30:63 Luer & Escobar 2009

Common Name The El Cairo Stelis [A community in Valle de Cauca department of Colombia where the species was found]

Flower Size .2" [5 mm]

Found in Valle de Cauca department of Colombia at elevations around 2000 to 2400 meters as a small to medium sized, cold growing, caespitose epiphyte with erect ramicauls enveloped by tubular sheath above the middle and 2 to 3 others at the base and carrying a single, apical, erect, coriaceous, elliptical, acute, contracted below into the distinct petiolate base leaf that blooms in the fall and spring on 1 to 3, erect, arising through a spathe from an annulus below the apex of the ramicaul, peduncle .4 to 1.2" [1 to 3 cm] long, rachis 4 to 5.2" [10 to 13 cm] long, loosely flowered below, congested above, simultaneously several, many flowered inflorescence with acute , longer than the pedicel floral bracts.

"This vegetatively large species, apparently endemic in the Western Cordillera of southern Colombia, produces small flowers in one to three racemes about as long as, or exceeding, the acute, petiolate leaf. The sepals are expanded and obtuse; the petals are widely transverse with a thickened margin and a transverse callus; and the lip is type-A with a rounded callus on the dorsum." Luer 2009

Synonyms

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;

* Selbyana 30: 20 Luer & Escobar 2009 Drawing fide;

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