Stelis dithele Luer & R.Escobar 2017 SECTION Humboldtia

TYPE Drawing by © Carl Luer

Common Name The Two Nippled Stelis [refers to small nipple-like calli in the center of the lip]

Flower Size .12" [3 mm]

Found in Risaralda department of Colombia at elevations around 2200 meters as a just miniature to small sized, cold growing, densely caespitose 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, elliptical, acute, cuneate below into the petiolate base leaf that blooms in the spring on a single, arising through a slender spathe from a node below the apex of the ramicaul, peduncle 2.8 to 3.2" [7 to 8 cm], rachis to 5.2 to 5.6" [13 to 14 cm] long, erect, strict, sublax, secund, mostly simultaneously, many flowered inflorescence with tubular, obtuse, shorter than the pedicel floral bracts and carrying purple flowers.

"This just miniature to small sized, caespitose species is distinguished by a pair of low, conical, nipple-like calli in the center of the lip, similar to the forked callus of Stelis major Otherwise, the species is characterized by an inflorescence with a peduncle as long as an acute, elliptical, long-petiolate leaf; fleshy, glabrous 3-veined sepals; and thin, single-veined petals." Luer 2017

Synonyms

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;

*Harvard Pap. Bot. 22: 36 Luer & Escobar 2017 drawing fide

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