Stelis cingens Luer & Hirtz 2004 SECTION Stelis
Drawing by © Carl Luer
LATER 
Common Name The Surrounding Stelis [refers to the petals totally encompassing the central apparatus]
Flower Size .16” [4 mm]
Found in Bolivar province of Ecuador at elevations around 2650 meters as a small sized, cold growing, epiphyte with a stout rhizome giving rise to an erect to ascending, slender ramicaul enveloped by a tubular sheath and another 1 to 2 at the base and carrying a single, apical, erect, coriaceous, elliptical, acute, cuneate below into the long-petiolate base leaf that blooms in the later summer on a strict, erect, congested, secund, 6.8” [17 cm] long including the .6” [1.5 cm] long peduncle, mostly simultaneously many flowered inflorescence arising through a spathe from below the apex of the ramicaul with inflated, oblique, obtuse floral bracts with either yellow or purple flowers.
"Characcterized by a stout rhizome, ascending ramicauls and a long raceme that far surpasses the leaves. The small flowers are arranged alternately, touching, perpendicular to the rachis and all facing one direction. The sepals are broadly ovate. The petals completely surround the column and lip, overlapping above the column and below the lip." Luer 2004
Synonyms
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;
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