Stelis euspatha Rchb.f. 1855
SECTION Stelis
TYPE Drawing by © Carl Luer and Selbyana 32(1,2): 44 Luer & Vasquez 2018
TYPE Drawing by © G A Romero/Carl Luer
Common Name The Well Formed Spathe Stelis
Flower Size .16" [4 mm]
Found in Colombia, Peru and Bolivia at elevations around 2800 meters as a small sized, cold growing, caespitose epiphyte with a short rhizome giving rise to erect, terete much longer than the leaf ramicauls enveloped by 2 sheaths and carrying a single, apical, coriaceous, erect, obliquely oblanceolate, contracted below into the canaliculate, petiolate base leaf that blooms in the spring on 1 to 3, thin, flowering from the base, 2 to 2.8" [5 to 7 cm] long, subdensely, simultaneously many flowered inflorescence with ovate-cucullate, acute, almost as long as the ovary floral bracts.
"This variable species occurs frequently at high altitudes from southern Colombia to central Bolivia. It is characterized by one to several racemes of small flowers that usually surpass the narrow leaf. The spathe is narrow, but often conspicuous. The sepals are pubescent within, sometimes sparsely pubescent, rarely glabrous, with the lateral sepals antrorse. The sepals are incompletely three-veined, the lateral veins weak, vestigial, or absent; the petals are always single-veined. The lip is type A, concave below a bifid bar and with the dorsum minutely pubescent, or cellular at most, and with the apex obtuse to rounded, and sometimes obtusely apiculate." Luer & Vasquez 2018
S mononeura is considered by kew to be synomonous with this species which would take precedence but for the moment I have kept them separate pending more research.
Synonyms Stelis buchtienii Schltr. 1912; Stelis iminapensis Rchb.f. 1881; Stelis xanthantha Schltr. First published in Repert. Spec. Nov. Regni Veg. 10: 452 (1912
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;
* Bonplandia (Hannover) 3: 225 Rchb.f 1855 ;
Xenia Orchid. 3: 25 Rchb.f 1881 as S iminapensis;
Repert. Spec. Nov. Regni Veg. 10: 451 Schlechter 1912 as S buchtienii;
Repert. Spec. Nov. Regni Veg. 10: 452 Schlechter 1912 as S xanthantha;
Orquideas de Bolivia Vol 1 Vasquez & Ibisch 2000;
Orchidaceae Stelis Swartz A Compendium Duque 2008 drawing hmm;
Orchidaceae Stelis Swartz A Compendium Duque 2008 as S iminapensis drawing fide
* Selbyana 32(1,2): 44 Luer & Vasquez 2018
Selbyana 32(1,2): 138 Luer & Vasquez 2018 Drawing fide
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