Stelis tenuilabris Lindl. 1859 SECTION Stelis
Photo by Santander Orquideas Nativas Website
Photo by David Morris
Drawing by Carl Luer
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Common Name The Thin Lip Stelis [refers to the sepals]
Flower Size .16" [4 mm]
Found in Pastaza, Napo and Morona-Santiago provinces of Ecuador, Cundinamarca department of Colombia and Tachira and Aragua states of Venezuela that occurs around 1000 to 2900 meters as a mini-miniature sized, warm to cold growing, densely caespitose epiphyte with stout, erect ramicauls carrying a single, apical, coriaceous, elliptical, obtuse, gradually narrowing below into the attenuate petiolate base leaf that blooms in the winter and earlier spring on an apical, shorter than the leaves and arises from the apex of the ramicaul, 2" [5 cm] long, fasciculate, racemose, many flowered inflorescence with oblique, acute as long as the ovary floral bracts and carrying light yellow glabrous flowers.
"Characterized by elliptical leaves about as long as the ramicauls and usually a fascile of a few short, miunuetly flowered racemes, very similar in habit to S hylophila. The ovate sepals areprctically free. The petals and lip are similar, thin, cuneate, shallowly concave and only slightly thickened along the broadly truncate apex. The lip is discoid and type"C: ." Luer 2009
CAUTION I am not sure of this determination. The first photo has flowers that are close in form but they are spaced too far apart and do not have the lateral sepals pointed forward so please use with caution.
The second photo has the flowers spaced correctly but it is impossible to make a floral determination with this photo
Synonyms Apatostelis alata (Lindl.) Garay 1979; Stelis abbreviata Luer & Hirtz 2007; Stelis alata Lindl. 1859; Stelis canaliculata Rchb.f. 1872;
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;
*Fol. Orchid. 8: 4 Lindley 1859;
Fol. Orchid. 8: 18 Lindley 1859 as S alata;
Gard. Chron. 1872: 1718 Rchb.f 1872 as S canaliculata;
Venezuelan Orchids Illustrated Vol 1 Dunsterville & Garay 1959 as S alata drawing good;
Flora de Venezuela Foldats Volumen XV Part 2 1970 as S alata drawing good;
Flora de Venezuela Foldats Volumen XV Part 2 1970 drawing good;
Orchids of Venezuela, An Illustrated Field Guide Vol 3 Dunsterville & Garay 1979 as S alata drawing good;
Bot. Mus. Leafl. 27: 189 Garay 1979 as Apatostelis alata;
Orchids of Venezuela [An illustrated field guide] Vol. 3 Ramiro and Carnevali 2000 as S alata drawing good;
Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XXIX Luer 2007 as S abbreviata
Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XXIX Luer 2007 as S abbreviata drawing good;
Orchidaceae Stelis Swartz A Compendium Duque 2008 as S alata drawing good;
Icones Pleurothallidinarum Vol XXX Lepanthes of Jamaica Stelis of Ecuador Part IV Luer 2009;
Harvard Pap. Bot. 23: 174 Luer & Escobar 2018 drawing fide;
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