Stelis desantiagoi Solano & Salazar 2007 SECTION Stelis P> Photos by © Geraldo Salazar and Revista Mex. Biodivers. 78: 253 A new species of Stelis (Orchidaceae, Pleurothallidinae) from Guerrero, Mexico Una nueva especie de Stelis (Orchidaceae, Pleurothallidinae) de Guerrero, México Solano & Salazar 2007
Drawing by © R Solano and Revista Mex. Biodivers. 78: 253 A new species of Stelis (Orchidaceae, Pleurothallidinae) from Guerrero, Mexico Una nueva especie de Stelis (Orchidaceae, Pleurothallidinae) de Guerrero, México Solano & Salazar 2007
Common Name de Santiago's Stelis [named after botanist Ricardo de Santiago, from the Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, one of its original collectors]
Flower Size
Found in Guerreo state of Mexico at elevations around 1250 or 1879 meters as a small sized, cool growing, caespitose epiphyte with erect, terete ramicauls enveloped almost totally by narrow tubular, scarious, obtuse, carinate sheaths and carrying a single, apical, fleshy, erect, narrowly elliptic, rounded, shortly 2 lobulate apically witha minute mucro, sulcate on the upper surface, carinate on the lower surface, attenuate below into the channelled petiolate base leaf that blooms in the fall on 1 to 2, erect, half as long as the leaf, arising from the annulus of the stem, peduncle .16 to .28" [4 to 7 mm] long, 1.8 to 3.2" [4.5 to 8 cm] long overall, one stem can produce inflorescence for several years, rachis densely and simultaneously, 20 to 28 flowered inflorescence with shortly tubular, narrow, membranaceous, oblique and obtuse at apex, shorter than the ovary floral bracts and carrying pale green, secund flowers.
"Stelis desantiagoi is similar to S. rubens . However, in S. rubens the stems are shorter .6 to 1.8" [1.5 to 4.5 cm] long, the leaves narrower .2 to .48" [5 to 12 mm] wide, the inflorescence is longer than the leaf, the flowers face directly outwards horizontally, the sepals are pubescent on the inner surface, the labellum is geniculate with a strongly incurved apicule, and the column is conspicuously three-lobed. The Guerrero population of S. rubens occurs in the same general area as S. desantiagoi but in a semi-evergreen tropical rain forest at a lower elevation (1250 meters) and is easily distinguished from the latter by the linear leaves up to .24" [6 mm] wide and the minute flowers with sepals .04 to .052" [1 to 1.3 mm] long. Florally this population is indistinguishable from other populations of S. rubens" Salazar and Solano 2007
Synonyms
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;
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