Stelis dendrophila Luer & R.Escobar 2017 SECTION Stelis

TYPE Drawing by © Carl Luer

Common Name The Tree Loving Stelis [refers to the epiphytic habit]

Flower Size .12" [3 mm]

Found in Santander department of Colombia at elevations around 2600 meters as a miniature sized, cold growing, repent epiphyte with erect, slender ramicauls enveloped by a tubular sheath below the middle and 1 to 2 others below and at the base and carrying a single, apical, erect, coriaceous, narrowly elliptical, acute, cuneate below into the petiolate base leaf that blooms in the spring on 2 to 3, arising through a spathe from a node at the apex of the ramicaul, peduncle .4 to .8" [1 to 2 cm], rachis to 1.6 to 2" [4 to 5 cm] long, erect, distichous, mostly simultaneously, many flowered inflorescence with oblique, acute, longer than the ovary floral bracts and carrying purple flowers with glabrous sepals.

"This medium-sized, repent species is characterized by a combination of a slender rhizome, slender ramicauls with narrow, elliptical leaves, and two or three racemes about as long; minutely pubescent, obtuse sepals; 3-veined petals; and a minute, rounded lip with an indistinct glenion." Luer 2017

Luer puts this one as a synonym of S dispar = S atra while Kew maintains its separate status.

Synonyms

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;

*Harvard Pap. Bot. 22: 34 Luer & Escobar 2017 drawing fide

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