IOSPE PHOTOS

Stelis cauda-equina Luer & R.Vásquez 1981 SECTION Stelis

TYPE Drawing by Š Carl Luer and Selbyana 32(1,2): 28 Luer & Vasquez 2018

EARLY

Common Name The Horse Tail Stelis [An allusion to the appearance of the orchid]

Flower Size .2" [5 mm]

Found in La Paz department of Bolivia at elevations around 1850 meters as a small to medium sized, cool growing, pendent, shortly repent-caespitose epiphyte with descending, pendent, slender ramicauls enveloped by a glabrous, tubular sheath below the middle and 2 to 3 pubescent ones at the base and carrying a single, apical, pendent, dull gray-green, coriaceous narrowly linear-elliptical, acute, gradually narrowing below into the sessile base leaf that blooms in the early summer on 1 to 3, pendent, flexuous, arising through a spathe at a node below the apex of the ramicaul, congested, peduncle .4 to .8" [1 to 2 cm] long, rachis 2 to 5.2" [5 to 13 cm] long, simultaneously many flowered inflorescence with oblique, acute, somewhat shorter than the ovary floral bracts.

"This large, shortly repent species with long, narrow, pendent ramicauls and leaves is unique among the species of the genus in Bolivia. The cauline sheaths nearest to the base are densely pubescent. A few, flexuous, many-flowered racemes shorter than the leaves hang among the remnants of many old inflorescences. The sepals of the small, rose colored flowers are ovate; the petals are thin and three-veined; and the lip is a modified type A that is broader and concave above a cleft bar with the halves rounded and protuberant." Luer & Vasquez 2018

Synonyms

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;

* Phytologia 49: 225 Luer & Vasquez 1981 ;

Orchidaceae Stelis Swartz A Compendium Duque 2008 drawing fide

Selbyana 32(1,2): 28 Luer & Vasquez 2018

Selbyana 32(1,2): 133 Luer & Vasquez 2018 Drawing fide;

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