Stelis chemophora Luer & Hirtz 2013 SECTION Humboldtia [Ruiz & Pavon] Pers.

TYPE Drawing by © Carl Luer

Common Name or Meaning The Cockle Bearing Stelis [refers to the fancied resemblance of the flowers to gaping clams]

Flower Size .24" [6 mm]

Found in Ecuador without locational data as a small sized, densely caespitose epiphyte with stout, erect ramicauls enveloped by a loose, tubular sheath on the middle 1/3rd, and 2 to 3 others at the base and carrying a single, apical, erect, coriaceous, elliptical, acute, abruptly narrowing below into the petiolate base leaf that blooms in the fall on an erect, arising from a node .4" [1 cm] below the apex of the ramicaul through a spathe, peduncle 2" [5 cm] long, 7.2" [18 cm] long overall, slender strict, distichous, successively few, many flowered inflorescence with just shorter than the ovary floral bracts and carrying flowers with light green suffused with rose near the middle, glabrous sepals,purple petals and a dark violet lip.

"This large, stout, densely caespitose species of SECTION Humboldtia [Ruiz & Pavon] Pers. is distinguished by long-petiolate leaves , short pedicellate flowers bourne just beyond the floral bract, the dorsal sepal parting from antrorse lateral sepals barely 45 degrees; proportionately large petals; and a lip with a cleft bar produced into a reclining callus on the dorsum that is flanked by several additional rounded calli." Luer 2013

Synonyms

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;

*Harvard Papers in Botany, Vol. 18, No. 2, pp. 173 to 196 2013 MISCELLANEOUS NEW SPECIES IN THE PLEUROTHALLIDINAE (ORCHIDACEAE) Carlyle A. Luer & Lisa Thoerle drawing fide;

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------