Stelis despectans Schltr. 1910 SECTION Stelis
Photo by © Hamer
TYPE Drawing by © Schlechter and The Epidendra Website
Drawing by © Blanche Ames and Orchids of Guatemala Ames Correll 1952
Common Name The Wretched Stelis
Flower Size .4" [1 cm]
Found in Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama in forests and open lands at elevations around 1400 to 1500 meters as a mini-miniature to miniature sized, a cool growing, caespitose epiphyte with erect, slender ramicauls enveloped by 2 tubular sheaths and carrying a single, apical, erect, coriaceous, narrowly oblong-ligulate, shortly apiculate, cuneate below into the petiolate base leaf that blooms on an erect, laxly many flowered inflorescence with ovate-cucullate, acuminate floral bracts.
"S despectens can be recognized by its raceme of noddin, secund flowers, its pointed, excavate lip and its rhomboid petals." O Duque 2008
Synonyms Stelis chiriquensis Schltr. 1918; Stelis nutantiflora Schltr. 1918
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;
* Repert. Spec. Nov. Regni Veg. 8: 453 Schlechter 1910;
Beih. Bot. Centralbl. 36(2): 386 Schlechter 1918 as S chiriquensis;
Beih. Bot. Centralbl. 36(2): 390 Schlechter 1918 as S nutantiflora;
Orchids of Guatemala Ames Correll 1952 drawing good;
Las Orquideas de El Salvador Vol 3 Hamer 1981 drawing/photo good;
Manual de Plantas de Costa Rica Vol 3 Hammel, Grayum, Herrera and Zamora 2003;
Orchidaceae Stelis Swartz A Compendium Duque 2008 drawing ok;
Orchid Genera and Species in Guatemala Archila, Szlachchetko, Chiron, Lipinska, Mystkowska and Bertolini 2018
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